Court leaves Volgograd activist Ruslan Nurushev in custody

The Volgograd Regional Court has approved the arrest of Ruslan Nurushev within the case of spreading fake news about the Russian Army, by neglecting the defence's arguments. The latter intends to challenge the activist's arrest.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ruslan Nurushev, a lawyer, was detained because of his post in a social network about a missile strike on Kharkov. He admitted his authorship of the post, but rejected the charges.

Eduard Yapparov, an advocate, has treated the district court's ruling as "illegal and unjustified." According to his version, the court had violated the principle of equality of arms, since it neglected the arguments of Nurushev and his advocate "about the absence of the defendant's intent to hide from investigators." The court listened to the investigator's opinion that Nurushev intends to influence the witnesses while at large and wants to hide from justice.

Roman Melnichenko, an international law expert, believes that there were several reasons for initiating a criminal case against Nurushev: "his legal activities, his legal literacy, and his civic integrity."

According to Melnichenko, "the application of the article on fakes has gotten out of the control of the federal centre." Local power bodies began using this article "for personal purposes that have nothing to do with Russia's goals."

"As a result, we see a gradual destruction of Russia's intellectual elite, the most important part of which is the legal corps. Some lawyers have left Russia, others are in custody. All this leads to the degradation of the judicial system and the Russia's legal system in general," Roman Melnichenko has emphasized.