TRIAL OF THE 'MISANTHROPIC DIVISION' PAGE ADMINISTRATORS HAS BEGUN IN RUSSIA

A trial began in the Moscow District Military Court on the case of three members of the Misanthropic Division internet community. According to the investigation, their guilt lies in the fact that they made a repost of several articles and videos.

The defendants themselves stated that they didn't know that a simple repost in a social network could be considered as a crime by Russian criminal code.

There are three young men on the dock: 26-year-old Moscowite Kirill Khalepo, 30-year-old resident of Rostov-on-Don Victor Pekhterev and 23-year-old Vitaly Tsaruk, a native of the city of Onega, Arkhangelsk region, RF.

According to the investigation, all three were involved into activities of the community entitled "Misanthropic Division (MD)" in the VKontakte (VK) social network, where they have been publishing some "incorrect" posts. The case is being considered by a military court since the guys are also accused of justifying terrorism, which, according to accusation, was expressed in support of Russian volunteers who have been fighting on Ukrainian side against the Kremlin-backed terrorists of Donbass.

At the same time, the prosecutor stressed that all three defendants have usually entered the social network from their computers and mobile devices. They have used neither nicknames nor software for hiding locations. 

Also, the indictment indicates that the MD and a number of associated pages were created by a citizen of Belarus Dmitry Pavlov. According to the defendants' lawyer, the investigative committee had previously reported openly that Pavlov had allegedly been seen in the territory of Germany and that "representatives of the Investigative Committee would go there within a month to convince the German side to extradite Pavlov to Russia." 

The defendants themselves admitted the blame only partially. They noted that they actually posted some articles and videos the prosecutor spoke about, as well as their activities as administrators of VK pages, related to the head Misanthropic Division page. At the same time, they stressed that they did not plan to call for terrorism or justify extremist activities. 

In total, 13 witnesses are being held in the Misanthropic Division case, eight of whom are not residents of Moscow. The investigation also brought to the case a huge number of printouts of Internet correspondence (in the VK social network) between the defendants themselves. The next meeting is scheduled for today, May 24.

Recall, this is not the first case brought up against members of the Misanthropic Division. In 2014 in Novosibirsk, four members of the right-wing community were persecuted for graffiti in support of Ukraine. The court sentenced ofne of them to imprisonment in a general regime colony for two and a half years, the second received two years in prison. Two more defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for one year and two months and for one year and six months.