Two Russians in Abkhazia under threat of 12 years in prison under IP-telephony case

Russian citizens are accused by an Abkhaz mobile operator of a fraud by using some equipment to transfer phone calls into IP-based networks in order to reduce cost thereof. The verdicts in their cases are expected on October 19.

Vladimir Trifonov and Sergey Sigov from the Chelyabinsk Region were detained in August 2015 and were in custody since then, Elena Zavodskaya, an Abkhazian journalist, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. They may be convicted to up to 12 years of imprisonment.

According to investigators, prior to coming to the republic in 2015, Trifonov had concluded a contract with some Russian company, which provides any interested person with equipment to intercept phone calls and make profit out of that. With this equipment, calls from Russia to Abkhazia were transferred to SIM-cards bought by Trifonov.

The Abkhazian "A-Mobile" operator states that by his actions Trifonov struck the damage to the company in the amount of 254,000 roubles; and Sigov – in the amount of 571,000 roubles. However, according to Zavodskaya, it is impossible to establish the real amount of damage.

The mother of Trifonov said that he suffers from liver cirrhosis; he experiences pains and cannot eat the prison food. She argues that Vladimir receives no medical care in custody.

His advocate Inga Gabelaya believes that investigators have wrongly qualified Trifonov's actions as a fraud. The use of IP-telephony does not assume any deceit; therefore is not a criminal offense, she added.

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