A verdict has been passed on a group of "USSR citizens"* from Cherkessk

A court in Cherkessk sentenced five residents of the republic accused in the case of an extremist community to real terms, and four more were given suspended sentences.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, in February 2023, the Cherkessk City Court extended the term of detention of Aslan Naptugov, Vladimir Ilychev, Abdulmalik Shoev, Oleko Kuzhev from Cherkessk, accused of participating in an extremist community, as well as Adnan Meremshaov, who was also accused of illegal trafficking of explosives. The investigation did not present any evidence of guilt of the accused, the lawyer said. On August 15, 2023, the case was submitted to the court. In August 2024, Naptugov himself called his case political persecution.

The Cherkessk City Court has sentenced nine defendants in the case of "USSR citizens"*: five of them were given real terms of five to eight years in prison, and four more were given suspended sentences. The OVD-Info human rights project drew attention to the sentence (they were included in the register of foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice).

The court's press service report speaks of nine defendants who "created, led, and participated in an extremist community" in Karachay-Cherkessia from March 2019 to June 2020. According to the investigation, they were pursuing “personal gain in the form of non-payment of credit obligations, utility bills and taxes,” considering themselves so-called citizens of the “USSR”*. None of the defendants admitted guilt.

The court’s press service did not specify the length of the suspended sentences given to the four defendants. All nine defendants were given additional punishments: three of them were banned from public activities for three years, the other six for five years, and all were given a year of restricted freedom. The court fined two of the defendants 20,000 rubles.

As follows from the case file on the court’s website, the verdict was issued on July 14. The case file lists ten defendants, all of whose names are hidden. Nine of them were charged with organizing the activities of an extremist organization, one of them was also charged under the article on illegal trafficking of explosives, and the tenth defendant was charged with participating in the activities of an extremist organization. The report on the verdict also mentions the article on illegal trafficking of firearms, but it is not indicated in the case file.

The date of receipt of the case in court - August 15, 2023 - indicates that this is the case of Aslan Naptugov, in which, in addition to him, ten more people were involved: Vladimir Ilyichev, Abdulmalik Shoev, Oleko Kuzhev, Adnan Meremshaov, Larisa Yakusheva, Oleg Bondarenko, Olga Primak, Yulia Kambieva, Svetlana Darova and Anita Tukova. Among those listed, Maremshaov was charged with illegal trafficking of explosives, and Naptugov, Ilychev, Shoev, and Kuzhev were charged with participation in an extremist community. The human rights project suggested that the charges could have been reclassified in the verdict or during the trial.

* The interregional public association "Union of Slavic Forces of Russia" was recognized as an extremist organization in August 2019, a decision on this was made by the Supreme Court of Komi.

** The activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.