Vadim Cheldiev sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment

The Rostov Regional Court found Vadim Cheldiev, an opera singer from North Ossetia, guilty of inciting extremism and sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on April 20, 2020, law enforcers dispersed a protest action held by opponents of the self-isolation regime in Freedom Square in Vladikavkaz. The protestors demanded the resignation of the government, parliament, and the leader of North Ossetia. According to the investigators’ version, thirteen employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the National Guard of Russia were injured during the spontaneous rally. Vadim Cheldiev, whom the investigators consider an initiator of the rally, was charged under four articles of the Russian Criminal Code at once, and he was included in the list of extremists compiled by the ”Rosfinmonitoring” (the Russian Federal Service for Financial Monitoring).

The Rostov Regional Court found Vadim Cheldiev, an opera singer from North Ossetia, guilty of inciting extremism. “In aggregate (...) to finally sentence Vadim Cheldiev to 10 years of imprisonment to be served in a high-security penal colony,” the “Interfax” quotes today the judge as pronouncing the verdict.

A public prosecutor requested the court to sentence Vadim Cheldiev to 11 years of imprisonment. Arsen Besolov and Ramis Chirkinov were each sentenced to eight years of imprisonment, the publication “Osnova” (Base) reports today.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 19, 2022 at 10:53 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.