Sergei Davidis sentenced in absentia

A military court in Moscow sentenced Sergei Davidis, co-chairman of the Memorial Human Rights Center*, in absentia to six years in prison, having found a repost on his social media page to be a justification of terrorism.

A military court in Moscow sentenced human rights activist Sergei Davidis in absentia in a case of justifying terrorism to six years in prison and banned him for three years from engaging in activities related to the creation and administration of websites, the Moscow prosecutor's office reported.

According to the court, the chairman of the Memorial Human Rights Center* and head of the project "Support for political prisoners. Memorial"* Sergey Davidis published messages on his personal page in one of the social networks, containing justification and recognizing the legality of the actions of prisoners of war from the Azov regiment, recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation, posting their personal data, places of detention in the pretrial detention center, as well as a crypto-wallet account for transferring assistance to them, according to a message on the Telegram channel of the prosecutor's office.

Judge Sergey Krivosheev needed only one hearing to make a decision. In the debate, the prosecutor asked to sentence the human rights activist to exactly this term, writes the project "Support for political prisoners. Memorial»*.

Last November, Davidis was added to the register of extremists and terrorists of Rosfinmonitoring with a note about his involvement in terrorist crimes.

"In January 2025, it became known that a criminal case was opened due to the repost of our project's press release on recognizing twenty-two Azov residents as political prisoners," the project's message says.

"Unfortunately, this is a repressive conveyor belt aimed at suppressing the right to freedom of expression, especially the freedom to express a human rights position. In my case, of course, the repressive activity of the authorities has a symbolic form, but it is still unpleasant. "We will, of course, appeal the verdict, but only to clearly express our disagreement with it," RusNews quoted Davidis as saying.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that on February 27, 2024, a Moscow court found Oleg Orlov, co-chairman of the Memorial Human Rights Center*, guilty in a criminal case of discrediting the army and sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison. The appellate courtupheld the verdict. On August 1, 2024, Orlov was released as part of a prisoner exchange with Western countries.

Materials about the trials of Memorials** and protests against the persecution of human rights activists are published by "Caucasian Knot" node" on the thematic page "Liquidation of "Memorials"***".

* entered by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the register of foreign agents.

** entered by the Ministry of Justice in the register of non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent, liquidated by a court decision.

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