The 1st Eastern District Military Court, at an off-site hearing in Irkutsk, will begin to consider a criminal case against 19-year-old local activist Ilya Podkamenny. This became known from letters that Podkameny sent to an OVD-Info reader from the Irkutsk pre-trial detention center-1.
Back in November 2022, the TV channel Shot reported that Ilya Podkamenny, a Subway employee, was arrested after he “wrapped the rails with copper wire” and “attached sheets from a school notebook with an extremist message to the tracks.” ”
The court hearing in his case, the young man said in one of his letters, was supposed to take place on August 29, “but for some reason three judges from Khabarovsk could not come.” There is a case file on the website of the 1st Eastern District Court – Podkamennoy’s name is hidden in it, however, as OVD-Info points out, it is probably about him.
According to data from the court website, the young man is accused of six criminal articles at once: preparation for a terrorist attack (Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code, Part 1 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code), justification of terrorism on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), assistance in terrorist activities (Part 4 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code), undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities (Article 205.3 of the Criminal Code), as well as two episodes of public calls for extremism (parts 1 and 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code).
In December 2022, the anonymous telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” wrote that, according to investigators, the young man “raised funds in a telegram to prepare an explosion at the military registration and enlistment office in the Irkutsk region.” Shot claimed that Podkamenny “organized a collection, including for the arson of a military registration and enlistment office in the village of Dzerzhinsk” and received “8 thousand rubles through crypto wallets.”
As Mediazona eventually learned, the investigation believes that the young man committed public calls for extremism— put the pieces of paper from the notebook on the tracks, prepared to a terrorist attack – arson of a military registration and enlistment office, studied terrorism – looked for information about the manufacture of explosives, and also assisted in terrorist organizations— collected money to set fire to the military registration and enlistment office. About the other two episodes – justification of extremism and terrorism on the Internet – was not previously known.
In one of the letters from the pre-trial detention center, the young man confirmed that the first part of the article about the justification of extremism was charged to him because of the leaflets that he posted on railway rails in May 2022, and the second – because of posts in telegram (which ones exactly – he did not specify).
Podkamenny said that he had recently been transferred to a cell for six people. “Everyone is political. <…> I met a very famous person here – Ruslan from Ust-Ilimsk,” added the defendant. “Can you tell me what you know about me from open sources (media)? What do they write there, what are they accusing me of?” he asked his interlocutor in a letter.
Under the article on assistance in organizing terrorist activities, Podkamenny faces up to life imprisonment. It is still unknown when exactly the first court hearing will take place.
The wardrobe is on fire. More than 65 people have already been detained in cases of sabotage on railways in Russia, every third is a minor.
