The Kirovsky District Court of Samara sent the 25-year-old singer Charlotte (Eduard Charlotte) to a pre-trial detention center, a 63.RU correspondent reported from the courtroom.
A criminal case has been opened against the musician under the article on insulting the feelings of believers (148 of the Criminal Code) and two episodes of the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism (Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). He will remain under arrest until January 24.
According to the investigation version, which was voiced at the meeting, Charlotte published videos on Instagram that “desecrated military glory.” In one of them, the singer tore the letter Z, painted in the colors of the St. George ribbon, in the second, “he redid the lyrics of the song "Victory Day" clearly offensive»; and on the third he ruined his military ID and then nailed it to the cross along with the portrait of Patriarch Kirill.
The reason for Charlotte’s arrest was considered by the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office to be that he could leave Russia again and continue publishing videos “rehabilitating Nazism.” The musician himself said that he did not agree with the investigators’ arguments, but did not deny “involvement in crimes.” He asked to be placed under house arrest. The musician’s father Valery Charlotte and the singer’s lawyer Alexey Lapuzin insisted on this.
On the morning of November 22, it became known that the musician had been detained at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, where he had flown from Yerevan. On the same day, the head of the Safe Internet League, Ekaterina Mizulina, announced a criminal case against Charlotte and published a video apologizing to the singer for burning a Russian passport in protest against the war in Ukraine.
The Leninsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested the musician for 13 days under the protocol of petty hooliganism (Part 1 of Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code). According to the police, on November 22, in the area of the Obvodny Canal, Charlotte swore obscene language, waved his arms and pestered passers-by. After his release from the St. Petersburg special detention center, the singer was taken to Samara in connection with a criminal case.
In court, when asked by the prosecutor why the musician returned to Russia, Charlotte replied: “The opposition has brainwashed him. And recently, well-known events began in the Gaza Strip. I am half Jewish, half Arab. And I saw the Western point of view on this situation. It seems to me that the opposition is paid for by the West, and I need to return to Russia to support the country. And yes, I got rid of the sidelocks.”
The singer added that he “supports the SVO” and read the poems that he composed himself: “Russia, I was rude to you from the doorstep. I ask forgiveness from the Russian people.”
Before the start of the meeting, lawyer Alexey Lapuzin asked to remove journalists from the hall. “During the meeting, sensitive issues will be discussed, including the state of health of Eduard Charlotte. Therefore, I ask you to remove the media,” Lapuzin said. However, judge Maria Elfimova found no grounds for this.