17:30, 28 July 2016

Court dismisses appeal against Igor Stenin's sentence

Igor Stenin (second to the right) with his support group near the Astrakhan Regional Court. Astrakhan, July 2016. Photo by Yelena Grebenyuk for the "Caucasian Knot"

The Astrakhan Regional Court has upheld the verdict against Igor Stenin, who was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a penal settlement-colony on the charge of public calls for extremism.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that according to investigators, Igor Stenin reposted an article about the war in Ukraine in his page on the social network "VKontakte". On May 25, the defence appealed against the verdict. The advocate insisted that the text was posted by another Internet user, who commented on the Igor Stenin's post containing no signs of extremism.

On June 9, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" called the criminal proceedings against Igor Stenin politically motivated. In the course of the consideration of the appeal filed against the sentence, experts reported that the text for which Igor Stenin was sentenced was posted by another Internet user as a comment.

Judge Tagirova has noted that the appeals filed by sentenced Igor Stenin and his advocate Ivanushkina were dismissed.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Yelena Grebenyuk

Source: CK correspondent