MOSCOW, December 13The number of teenagers in the capital's pre-trial detention centers (SIZO) has increased during 2023, children from prosperous families are increasingly being sent there, and many are accused of extremist and terrorist charges, the assistant head of the Department for Human Rights Observance in the penitentiary system of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the city reported on Wednesday Moscow Marina Vasina.
«»In 2023, we are seeing a very large increase in minors held in detention centers. If at the beginning of the year 18 people seemed like a lot for us, today it is more than 50. If two years ago these were guys with a completely difficult fate, who have committed crimes against individuals — murders, violent acts, and so on, today the ranks are filled with minors who are accused of extremism and terrorism. Nine out of ten are accused of terrorism,» Vasina said at the interregional forum «Legal education and socialization of minors as an effective tool shaping future leaders.»
She added that almost all children accused of terrorism have two-parent, prosperous families, and teenagers are successful in education and sports.
«We mainly have guys who committed a crime — setting fire to relay cabinets on the railway, the majority of them. But there are other crimes in the field of terrorism and extremism,» Vasina added.
Arson of relay cabinets is regarded as sabotage (Article 281 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The arsonist may face imprisonment for a term of ten to twenty years.