A Russian court released opponent Yevgeni Roizman, former mayor of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, on Thursday to await trial for trying to “discredit” the army, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Founder of a charitable foundation in his name and one of the last opposition figures still at large, Evguéni Roïzman, 59, will no longer be able to use the Internet, participate in public events, send or receive mail and will only be able to communicate. with close relatives, he has decided the Yekaterinburg court in the center-west.
On the other hand, the court did not respond to the request for house arrest presented by the investigators. The opponent’s supporters applauded him when he arrived – in jeans and a pink T-shirt – at the court, singing “Freedom !!!”, said an AFP journalist. Yevgeni Roizman has pleaded not guilty.
Accused of wanting to “discredit” the army
He had been the subject of a muscle arrest on Wednesday, a dozen armed policemen in camouflage uniforms came to his home in Yekaterinburg early in the morning, according to a video broadcast by the Mash channel on Telegram. An investigation has been opened against him for wanting to “discredit” the Russian armed forces, the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The investigators accuse Yevgeni Roizman of having published a video on the Internet whose content was intended to “discredit the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation made to defend the interests of the country and its citizens,” according to the same source.
According to a police source cited by the official TASS agency, it is a video denouncing the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which was published by the opponent on his YouTube channel.
He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Mayor of Yekaterinburg between 2013 and 2018, Evguéni Roïzman now faces up to 10 years in prison. Leaving his apartment after his arrest, accompanied by the police, the opponent claimed to be prosecuted for having publicly used the word “invasion” to describe the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Recently, Yevgeny Roizman has already been sentenced to three fines for having criticized the offensive in Ukraine. Decimated by previous waves of repression, the Russian opposition has been crushed since the assault on Ukraine. The last major critics of President Vladimir Putin either emigrated or were imprisoned.
Recently, Ilia Iachine and Vladimir Kara-Mourza, two dissidents who remained in Russia, were jailed for denouncing the conflict. They risk ten years in prison. Before that, the main opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, had been jailed in January 2021.
Source: BFM TV
