The Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court fined 56-year-old native of Ukraine Igor Zaochny, who is in a pre-trial detention center in connection with a terrorist attack, under the protocol “on the propaganda of the slogan of Ukrainian nationalists.” Mediazona drew attention to the court's decision.
The protocol against Absentee (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) was drawn up due to comments under posts in the telegram channel of the Ukrainian agency UNIAN. Employees of Center “E” found in them “Nazi symbols — a signal of the ideology of the Ukrainian organization “Ukrainian Insurgent Army,” the court decision says. The man left comments under the UNIAN publication dated December 24, 2023. It is unknown which post we are talking about.
The police pointed out that the UNIAN telegram channel itself covers the war in Ukraine “in an extremely negative light, with anti-Russian rhetoric,” and in absentia published “various negative comments regarding the ongoing special military operation, expressing support for the current government in Ukraine, its special services, challenging territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, containing nationalist slogans, as well as insults and threats to the life and health of political figures.”
The men examined the comments in February 2024 in the presence of two female witnesses. They said that UNIAN's publications and Absentia's comments were viewed by an FSB officer. According to the first girl, in them the man “spoke extremely negatively” about the Russian military and Vladimir Putin. The second girl told the court that Absentia “stood out especially actively” when viewing the comments because he wrote “a lot” about Russia.
The man himself admitted guilt and repented, the court was told. As a result, he was fined one thousand rubles. The absentee was not present at the meeting, since he is in pre-trial detention center No. 1 in the Kamchatka Territory on a criminal case of a terrorist attack (Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code).
Rosfinmonitoring added Absentia to the list of “terrorists and extremists” on May 27. Judging by the file of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky court, he was sent to the pre-trial detention center on May 8, and on the same day the man’s house was searched. At the end of June, the court extended the detention in absentia. It is unknown what exactly the man is accused of.
In early August, the court will consider another protocol against the Absentee — under the article on “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code).