SC approves sentence to activist Darya Polyudova

The Russian Supreme Court (SC) has refused to change the sentence passed to Darya Polyudova, an activist, who is serving her nine-year sentence within the case of creating an extremist community and publicly justifying terrorism. This was reported by the human rights project "OVD-Info"*.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Polyudova remains in strict custody conditions in a colony in Kabardino-Balkaria, where she is serving her sentence. The reason for her criminal prosecution was in posts placed in social networks, in which Polyudova, according to the court, justified the actions of the Chechen field commanders, Shamil Basaev and Aslan Maskhadov, as well as of Evgeny Manyurov, who opened fire near the FSB building in Moscow in December 2019. The defence insisted that Polyudova made no direct calls for terrorism. In December 2021, it became known that a new case had been filed against Darya. According to the FSB, she had created a movement with the aim of publicly justifying terrorism and extremism.

The defence insisted that inadmissible evidence was used in the case; and in her posts Darya expressed her personal opinions, the human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial" has reported.

Kirill Kotov, a witness, sentenced to three years of conditional imprisonment for participation in an extremist community, claimed that he had testified against Polyudova under investigators' pressure: he was threatened with a real prison term. According to his story, Polyudova is not the organizer of any communities.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that in October, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) upheld Polyudova's complaint about her long-term custody.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**On December 29, 2021, by the decision of the Moscow City Court, the Russian legal entities of the "International Memorial" and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" were liquidated. Activists of the organizations have reported that both organizations will continue their work without forming legal entities.