Yevgeny Karakashev is sentenced to 6 years in prison

The court sentenced him to 6 years in a penal colony. He also has a
2-years ban for management of web-sites. Yevgeny Karakashev calmly
reacted to the verdict. The Russian prosecutor's office requested for
Karakashev 9 years in a penal colony. His Lawyer Alexey Ladin requested
him to declare Yevgeny not guilty. After the verdict, the lawyer stated
that he will appeal against the decision of the Military Court.

Earlier, the Court in Rostov-on-Don closed the criminal case against
Karakashev on charges of incitement of hatred towards a social group
(part 1 of article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code) for posts in VKontakte.

On April 12, Karakashev stated his innocence and persecution against him
he qualified as political. The activist said that he participated in the
protection of the salt lake near Evpatoria, where local authorities
allowed the construction.

“Everyone knows that the construction and destruction of a salt lake
with therapeutic mud was supervised by the mayor of Evpatoria, Andrei
Filonov - at the moment two criminal cases are initiated against him, in
particular, about land fraud, illegal transfer [of this territory] to
another land fund.” - said the accused.

He also noted that he had noticed signs of hacking on his pages on
social networks before arrest.

“My mailbox was hacked, the attached phone number was changed in it and
I could not resume access to it. Strange posts appeared on my pages in
social networks, I deleted them, some of my posts disappeared.

Some users received messages from me with obscene abuse and calls for
violence, I repeatedly changed passwords” - the activist explained.

Case description

On February 1, 2018, Yevgeny Karakashev was arrested by police in
Evpatoria. Journalist Alyona Savchuk wrote on Facebook that on the day
of his arrest Karakashev house was searched. “They made it harshly: the
men in civil broke in, did not introduce themselves, immediately laid
him on the floor, twisted him, put handcuffs behind the back. Yevgeny
says that he stayed in handcuffs up to the holding cell. On the right
side of forehead he has a huge abrasion. Only in the evening Karakashev
was able to call a friend and asked to find a lawyer” - reports Savchuk
- “Investigator Abushaev stated that he does not remember how long
Karakashev was in handcuffs - 5 minutes or 3 hours, and that Karakashev
"was offered" to go to the police department and that he voluntarily
agreed".

On February 2, 2018, the Evpatoria City Court arrested Karakashev for
pre-trial detention on suspicion of committing crimes under Part 1 of
Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to hatred and hostility) and
Part 2 of Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public calls for terrorism).

According to the investigation, Karakashev published a video from one of
his pages in VKontakte at the end of 2014, which allegedly calls for
terrorism. In addition, according to the acts, in January 2017, he
posted a text from another account in a chat for 35 people, which
contains signs of “propaganda of the ideology of violence” and “calls
for terrorist activities”. It is not specified what exactly Karakashev
published, however, the document says that the experts investigated
“teletext, starting with the words ‘use a grenade against’ and ending
with the words ‘in the windows of the authorities, good luck’”.

It seems that, the reason for initiating a criminal case was the video
“The Last Interview of Primorsky Partisans”, published in the social
network VKontakte, in which the partisans explain the motives of their
actions. This video is recognized in Russia as extremist, since it
“arouses hatred towards a certain social group”.

[The Primorsky Partisans were a group of people who waged a guerrilla
war against the Russian police, who have long been accused of
corruption, and brutality]

According to lawyer Alexey Ladin, Yevgeny Karakashev himself believes
that the initiation of a criminal case against him and the subsequent
arrest are related to his activist work: the man spoke out against
construction at resort area near Evpatoria in the vicinity of a salt
lake. Yevgeny is an anarchist and anti-fascist. Karakashev always held
an active civil position, participated in a picketing near the FSB
[russian secret service] building in the city of Simferopol, and in
November 2016, together with like-minded people, planned to hold a
picketing "against police brutality in the Crimea" near the building of
the MIA [police] of Yevpatoria. This action was banned by the local
authorities of Evpatoria. After this incident, Yevgeny was getting calls
by officers of the so-called law enforcement agencies and invited to
talk to give explanations, Yevgeny refused to testify anything.

Signs of political motivation for persecution

It is very likely that the criminal case against Yevgeny Karakashev was
initiated in the context of his oppositional social and political
activities as a repeated participant in protest actions in the Crimea.
In the context of the persecution of left-wing activists and
anti-fascists that began in January 2018, the Karakashev case seems
likely to be politically motivated.

Thus, the circumstances of the prosecution give reason to think that the
imprisonment of Yevgeny Karakashev was applied to terminate his public
activities, also incarceration was used in violation of Yevgeny’s rights
and freedoms and was based on falsifying evidence in the absence of the
event of an alleged crime.

How to help
We collect money for lawyer work on appeal and support Yevgeny in
prison. 9Transfer money on Paypal - [email protected] – please mention
"for Yevgeny Karakashev"

Source:
https://avtonom.org/en/news/yevgeny-karakashev-sentenced-6-years-prison