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The Military Court of Appeal in Vlasikha, near Moscow, has upheld the sentence of 16 years' imprisonment for 67-year-old St Petersburg dissident Alexander Skobov. This was reported by Mediazona.
In March, the 1st Western District Military Court sentenced Skobov to 16 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 rubles (approx. US$3,350) on charges of justifying terrorism (Part 2, Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and participating in a terrorist organisation (Part 2, Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code). The dissident is to serve the first three years of his sentence in prison, and the remainder in a high-security penal colony. He is also banned from administering online resources for three years.
Skobov took part in the court session via video link from Syktyvkar pre-trial detention centre, in the Komi Republic. He refused to answer questions from the panel of judges, declaring: “I do not recognise your court!”
The dissident also refused to make a closing statement. He added: “Death to Putin, the murderer and scoundrel, death to the Russian fascist invaders! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”
Skobov’s lawyer filed a motion to have the panel of judges recused, because he had not been allowed to speak privately with his client at the start of the trial. The court rejected the request.
Skobov faced two counts of justifying terrorism because of his online posts. One was about the explosion on the Crimean Bridge, while in the other he expressed support for Darya Trepova, who was convicted over a bombing that killed propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky.
He was also charged under the article on terrorist organisations for allegedly participating in the “Free Russia Forum”—a discussion platform created abroad by Russian opposition figures.
Skobov has been held in detention since April 2024. Although the dissident lives in St Petersburg and was arrested there, he was transferred to the Syktyvkar pre-trial detention centre.
- In the 1970s and 1980s, Alexander Skobov spoke out against the Soviet authorities. He was first arrested in 1978. After his arrest, he refused deportation from the USSR and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. After his release in 1981, he joined the Free Inter-professional Workers’ Association, established by other dissidents. In 1982, Skobov was arrested again and sent for forced treatment after he covered building walls in the centre of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) with slogans supporting political prisoners. He was not released from hospital until 1987.