Human rights project “Support for political prisoners. Memorial recognized Dagestan resident Shakhban Abakargadzhiev as a political prisoner. Recently, the Khasavyurt City Court sentenced him to five years in prison due to comments against the Russian army. However, the sentence was commuted, replacing the real term with three years of correctional labor.

The man was found guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, Abakargadzhiev published comments on his Instagram page about civilians killed in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region. The court found that the man decided to spread false information with the intention of creating a negative attitude towards the actions of the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine. Shahban explained that he published his posts in a fit of rage after his deceased nephew was brought from Ukraine.

“Abakargadzhiev is charged with a post with which he condemns the crimes of the military in Bucha. In this case, the accusation of disseminating “knowingly false” information is absurd, since the responsibility of the Russian Federation for mass murders and rapes has been proven and recognized by authoritative organizations. In addition, Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code is anti-legal in nature, created to carry out repression against critics of the authorities and must be abolished,” human rights activists said.