The Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation on fakes about the Russian Army against the former Karelian prisoner Ruben Poghosyan. The reason was his reposts on social network «Vkontakte» about the events in Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk. This was reported by the «Network Freedoms» project.
Petrozavodsk resident Ruben Pogosyan became a defendant in a criminal case on fakes about the Russian army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In April, he made several reposts on VKontakte about the events in Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk. According to lawyer Roman Masalev, in the nearest future the court will choose pre-trial restrictions for Poghosyan.
Ruben Poghosyan became famous after the disclosure of information about torture in correctional colony No. 9 in Petrozavodsk. After that the employees filed an action for libel , but they were refused to initiate proceedings. In 2020, the employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia became defendants in criminal cases on the fact of beating prisoners.
On March 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on criminal records for spreading fakes in the Russian Army. Since then, the Investigative Committee has initiated at least 85 cases under Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Among them are journalist Ilya Krasilshchik, publicist Alexander Nevzorov, politician Ilya Yashin, former employee of Channel One Marina Ovsyannikova, Moscow deputy Alexei Gorinov, who was sentenced by a court to seven years in prison for speaking [Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications], and others.
According to human rights activist Pavel Chikov, as of August 16, 25 accused are in custody under the article on fakes. Other 24 defendants are beyond the bounds of Russia.
