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- Who is Ivan Lyubshin and what has he been charged with?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
On 31 October 2018 Ivan Lyubshin reposted on his page on the VKontakte social media site the news that 17-year-old anarchist Mikhail Zhlobitsky had blown himself up in the entrance hall of the FSB building in Arkhangelsk. He added some comments of his own about the deceased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These comments became grounds for his criminal prosecution. Almost a year later, on 14 October 2019, criminal proceedings were instituted against Lyubshin under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public justification of terrorism and advocacy of terrorism committed using the Internet).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the morning of 15 October 2019, Lyubshin was detained at a bus stop by FSB officers. According to Lyubshin, the FSB officers put him in a car, handcuffed him and took him to a forest where they kicked him and used an electroshock device on him. They then took him to the Investigative Committee for questioning. On 17 October, the Kaluga district court placed him under house arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subsequently, doctors recorded \u2018multiple bruises\u2019 on Lyubshin\u2019s legs, arms, shoulder, ear, back and lower back. However, first the Kaluga prosecutor\u2019s office and then the federal Investigative Committee refused to initiate criminal proceedings against the FSB officers for torture.
On 25 December 2019 Lyubshin was released under travel restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn 5 March 2020, the 2nd Western District Military Court found Lyubshin guilty of committing a crime under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to five years two months in a general regime penal colony with a subsequent ban on working as a website administrator for two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- What is wrong with Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Memorial noted<\/a> in its report \u2018Statements in support of terrorism\u2019 that Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code has effectively replaced the partially decriminalized Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as abasing human dignity) as the main instrument for political motivated prosecution with regard to statements made on the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In particular, the report said, \u2018in many instances criminal prosecutions of this kind are characterized by a formalistic approach and a punishment markedly disproportionate to the real danger [of the incriminated act], and sometimes prosecution may be retaliation for political views or for social or political activism.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- Why Lyubshin?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The selection of Lyubshin as a victim of criminal prosecution could have been influenced by his opposition views, the fact that some of his friends on social media are opposition activists in Kaluga and the fact that he had previously been associated with an Orthodox Church that is an alternative to the Moscow Patriarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is obvious that Lyubshin\u2019s prosecution is connected with the fact that he has long been under observation by the security services. In 2017 he was fined of 400,000 roubles under Part 2 Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred or enmity) and Part 2 Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code (rehabilitation of Nazism using the media). In addition, Lyubshin was charged under Point \u2018b\u2019 of Part 3 of Article 242 of the Criminal Code (distribution of pornography using the media) but was acquitted at his trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/memohrc.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/image_to_text\/public\/images\/lyubshin_0.png?itok=GcMl-Fvw\")
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- Why does Memorial consider Lyubshin a political prisoner?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Lyubshin is not accused of inciting terrorist attacks or other violent acts. His prosecution is related solely to a few careless comments about a news item on his personal social media page that has a very small audience. These comments did not contain explicit calls for violence and posed a negligible public danger, if any at all. Moreover, Lyubshin had already deleted the comments by the time the criminal case was initiated. His prosecution should be seen in the context of the prosecutions of members of the political opposition, journalists and other writers on public affairs and those who accidentally became involved in the discussion of the causes and nature of the act, as well as the personality, of Mikhail Zhlobitsky, who blew himself up in the FSB building in Archangelsk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The information we have suggests that, after Lyubshin\u2019s detention, he was tortured, something which has become a typical means of interrogation in \u2018terrorist\u2019 cases investigated by the FSB. For example, a medical exam recorded<\/a> numerous bruises and contusions on Lyubshin\u2019s body \u2018near his ear, on his wrists, his right elbow, left shoulder, chest, ribs, lower back and right shin.\u2019
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Why does Memorial consider Lyubshin a political prisoner?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Why Lyubshin?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- What is wrong with Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n