The prosecutor’s office requested the sentencing of 22-year-old Dmitry Ivanov, author of the Protest MGU telegram channel, to nine years in a penal colony for spreading “false news” about the army motivated by political hatred (clause ” d” part 2 of article 207.3 of the Penal Code). Mediazona* reports this from the courtroom of the Timiryazevsky district of Moscow.
In addition, the prosecutor’s office demands to ban Ivanov from using the Internet for four years after his release, the newspaper reports.
Dmitry Ivanov is a student at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University and one of the creators of the Protest MSU telegram channel. He was arrested in June 2022 in a bogus military case.
According to Mediazona*, the reason for initiating proceedings against the young man was his posts on social networks, which, among other things, talk about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as events in Mariupol and Bucha. Ivanov faces up to ten years in prison.
The defendant’s lawyer, Maria Eismont, said during the trial that Ivanov had no intention of deliberately spreading false information, as he was trying to understand what had happened in Ukraine and was looking for data in various sources.
Eismont, in particular, pointed out that the evidence, according to which Ivanov himself published “false” information on the Protest MGU telegram channel, was obtained by hacking into his phone. According to the lawyer, it was impossible to do so without a court order.
In addition, Eismont read the decision of the Supreme Court plenum, from which it is clear that criticism of the authorities cannot be considered as incitement to hatred or enmity.
During the consideration of the case, the Moscow Timiryazevsky District Court issued summonses to the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, and the permanent representative of Russia to the UN, Vasily Nebenzi, demanding to appear in court so that they would testify there as witnesses. The defense insisted on their recusal. According to Eismont, from a legal point of view, Konashenkov, Lavrov and Nebenzya were supposed to be witnesses, since the prosecutor’s office builds the accusation on the basis of their statements. However, they did not come to court.
* Recognized as a foreign agent
