The Supreme Court (SC) of Russia refused to approve the verdict in the case of rehabilitation of Nazism (Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) to Moscow monarchist Mikhail Nalimov due to doubts about the competence of the author of the examination, Danil Mikheev. The ruling was published on the court's website.
On November 21, 2022, the Moscow City Court sentenced Nalimov to three years of forced labor because of three posts with pictures that depicted the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, with a pentagram superimposed on it.
A psychological and linguistic forensic examination in this case was conducted by expert Danila Mikheev with a bachelor’s degree in conflict management. The Supreme Court concluded that “the courts of first and appellate instances did not properly check the data indicating the competence and qualifications of the expert,” which “is a significant violation of the criminal procedure law that influenced the outcome of the case.” The Supreme Court sent Nalimov's case for review to the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction.
In August, the Ministry of Justice admitted Mikheev’s incompetence in responses to lawyers’ requests. In recent years, he has become a leading expert linguist in political criminal cases, despite the lack of specialized education, noted the head of the Agora human rights group, Pavel Chikov.