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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Court approves the sentence of Daria Polyudova |
| 2023-10-20 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] The Supreme Court of Russia refused to change the sentence of Kuban activist Daria Polyudova, who is serving a nine-year sentence in the case of creating an extremist community and publicly justifying terrorism. As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, Kuban activist Daria Polyudova remains in strict conditions of detention in a colony in Kabardino-Balkaria, where she is serving a sentence in the case of creating an extremist community and publicly justifying terrorism, said the mother of the activist, who was able to get a meeting with her daughter. In May 2021, a court in Moscow sentenced Polyudova to six years in prison. The reason for the criminal prosecution was publications on the social network in which Polyudova, according to the court, justified the activities of the Chechen field commanders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov , as well as Yevgeny Manyurov, who in December 2019 opened fire near the FSB building in Moscow. The defense insisted that Polyudova made no direct calls for terrorism. In December 2021, it became known that a new case had been filed against the activist. According to the FSB, she created a movement with the aim of publicly justifying terrorism and extremism. The court sentenced her to nine years in prison in December 2022. In 2015-2017, Polyudova was in a penal settlement on a case of public calls for separatism and extremism, initiated after an attempt to hold an action “For the federalization of Kuban,” according to her biography published on the “Caucasian Knot.” In 2018, Daria Polyudova became the laureate of the Sakharov Prize “For Journalism as an Act.” The Memorial Human Rights Center* recognized Daria Polyudova as a political prisoner. The Supreme Court approved the sentence for Daria Polyudova - nine years in prison, the human rights project OVD-Info** reported today. “I have the right to my opinion. In other countries there are also socialists, but they sit in parliaments, and not like me in prison,” the publication quotes her words in court. The activist's defense insisted that unacceptable evidence was used in the case, and in her publications she expressed her personal opinion, the human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial" reported today. Witness Kirill Kotov, sentenced to three years of probation under the article on participation in an extremist community, stated that he testified against Polyudova under pressure from the investigation: he was threatened with a real prison term. According to Kotov, Polyudova is not the organizer of any community, the report says. The "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that in October the ECHR upheld Polyudova's complaint about long-term detention. Memorial Human Rights Centre calls for the immediate release of Daria Polyudova. WHO IS DARYA POLYUDOVA AND WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST HER? The 31-year-old Communist Darya Polyudova first came to public attention in 2014 when she became the first victim of the newly introduced Article 280.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (incitement of separatism) after an attempt to organise a ‘March for the Federalisation of Kuban’ in Krasnodar. In 2015 the activist was found guilty and sentenced to two years in a low security penal colony. Memorial at that time declared Polyudova a political prisoner. In the autumn of 2017 Darya was released and continued her political activism. In January 2019 she held a single-person picket in Moscow displaying a poster that read: ‘Hey, Kuril Islanders! Stop feeding Moscow! Long live the Far Eastern Republic!’ The activist suggested that the residents of these islands hold a referendum on withdrawing from the Russian Federation. On her page on the Vkontakte social network site she wrote that it would benefit Russia if it divided into several countries. In February of the same year on VKontakte Polyudova reposted someone else's publication which consisted of a photo of the militant Shamil Basayev with the inscription ‘when we demanded a referendum, the Russians came and killed everyone who did not have time to hide.’ This was accompanied by a text that stated: ‘the Urals and other republics that will separate from Russia in the future need individuals such as Dzhokhar Dudayev, Shamil Basayev, Aslan Maskhadov’ and that the residents of the Urals must learn to ‘fight against the Muscovites to defend their independence.’ |
| Posted by:badanov |