Judge Tatyana Kovalenko of the Nizhnevartovsk City Court of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug dismissed the case of “discrediting” the army (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) against lawyer Khamzat Izrailov and demanded that a criminal case be opened against him because of the post about the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin. This follows from the court ruling.
The reason for the protocol against Izrailov was his story on Instagram, where he “published several photographs of P and U, who were the leaders of the PMC <data seized>”, indicating, that I am glad in their death,” the court clarified. As URA.RU wrote, publications critical of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin appeared in the lawyer’s account at the end of August.
In one of his stories, Izrailov posted pictures of the head of Wagner PMC in different camouflage suits and wrote: “The disguise did not help. When I didn’t reach Moscow, there was no longer a chance to stay alive.” “As for the death of this Utkin, I’m even glad. Nazi, racist, fascist and now a corpse,” the lawyer added in the second publication.
The security forces who drew up the protocol under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses decided that the lawyer considered Prigozhin and Utkin to be terrorists who tried to “overthrow the legitimate government in the Russian Federation and the legitimately elected President V.V. Putin,” and also killed 15 military personnel, “who tried to defend the Constitutional system of the Russian Federation.”
Some of the witnesses noticed that Izrailov spoke not about the army, but about specific people who are not related to the Russian armed forces. At the same time, the participants in the process drew attention to the awards of the commanders of the Wagner PMC — after the start of the war in Ukraine, Prigozhin and Utkin received the titles of Heroes of Russia. In addition, they were classified as combat veterans.
The judge proposed to initiate a criminal case against Izrailov under the article on insulting the memory of defenders of the Fatherland (Part 3 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code).
On the evening of August 23, under An Embraer Legacy 600 plane belonging to a businessman crashed in Tver. Prigozhin and his comrade-in-arms, commander of the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin, were on this flight.
All ten passengers and crew members died. As Fontanka wrote, Prigozhin’s alleged body was identified by indirect signs, since it could not be visually identified due to damage. On August 27, the Investigative Committee announced that molecular genetic testing confirmed Prigozhin’s death.