Verdict for appealing to Kadyrov surprises rights defenders

The court made a strange ruling by qualifying the appeal to the head of Chechnya by a resident of the Khabarovsk Territory, Zakhar Zaripov, as justification of terrorism, human rights defenders have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Zaripov was arrested on charges of calls for terrorism. Investigators believe that when addressing Ramzan Kadyrov on the LiveJournal, Zaripov called for a violation of Russia's territorial integrity. A military court has sentenced him to five years in penal colony.

Svetlana Gannushkina*, the chair of the "Civic Assistance" Committee*, believes that it's strange to qualify an appeal to Kadyrov as justification of terrorism. She treats the convict's statements in themselves as not entirely serious.

"The man has offered Ramzan Kadyrov to commit a rebellion; however, Kadyrov is Putin's most loyal 'foot soldier'. It is unlikely that this call could lead to violent actions. And this is an important criterion in assessing such crimes. Otherwise, any statement can be called a justification for terrorism ... People are imprisoned for both idle talk and for expressing the opinion that does not coincide with authorities' policies," Ms Gannushkina* has noted.

Alexander Verkhovsky, the head of the SOVA Research Centre*, believes that law enforcers are closely monitoring any mentions of the head of Chechnya in social networks. "This is immediately a call for rebellion and a new campaign against Moscow a la Prigozhin ... Hence the above prison term," he believes.

In his opinion, the author of the above appeal should have been examined by psychiatrists, not by law enforcers.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.