The prosecutor asked that Pussy Riot member and former Mediazona publisher Pyotr Verzilov be sentenced in absentia to eight years and six months in prison in the case of military “fakes.” This is reported by the «Caution News» correspondent from the courtroom.
Verzilov's case is being considered for the second time in the Basmanny District Court of Moscow. The reason for the persecution of the actionist was two tweets and two posts on Instagram with a story about the murders in Bucha.
According to the security forces, the publications contain a message “that could lead to an unreasonable increase in social tension and harm the interests of the Russian Federation” (clause “e” of part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code).
In November 2023, the state prosecution requested for Peter Verzilov was sentenced to nine years in prison in absentia; as a result, he was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. The Moscow City Court sent the case for review due to procedural violations.
The former publisher of Mediazona left Russia in 2020 after a series of searches of him and his relatives. Before this, a criminal case was opened against him for failure to notify of his second citizenship (Article 330.2 of the Criminal Code). Peter Verzilov's father lived in Canada, and he himself studied at a local school, after which he received Canadian citizenship. In September 2021, the Ministry of Justice included Verzilov, along with Mediazona and the publication’s editor-in-chief Sergei Smirnov, in the register of “foreign agents.”
In addition to the “fake” case, after the start of the war, a case of treason was also opened against Verzilov ( Article 275 of the Criminal Code). In March 2024, security forces conducted at least three dozen searches in seven cities as part of this case. FSB officers visited contemporary artists, winners of famous awards, and heads of major cultural institutions.
Curators from the FSB. How Russian artists were interrogated and searched in the case of Pyotr Verzilov on treason