A St Petersburg resident, accused of spraying paint on flags and damaging a Z-banner, has spoken out about being tortured.

Nikolai Trofimov, a St Petersburg resident being prosecuted for spraying paint on flags and damaging a Z-banner, has spoken out about torture. Mediazona reported this, citing their correspondent in the St Petersburg City Court.

During the hearing, the prosecutor drew attention to a contradiction in the defendant’s testimony. Trofimov’s lawyer stated that the defendant initially gave his testimony under duress—as he himself had later explained.

Trofimov recounted that after his arrest, six plainclothes security officers beat him: “They beat me on the head with their fists and feet, picked me up and threw me onto the floor, put a gas mask on me, squeezed it so it was hard for me to breathe.” The defendant explained that he had confessed during the initial interrogations “because I was afraid they would send me back to the officers who beat me.”

It was also revealed that the case will be heard by a jury.

Nikolai Trofimov was detained on 11 May 2024, and two days later he was sent to a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). On 6 June, he was released to house arrest, and later his restrictions were further eased to a travel ban and a requirement not to leave town.

At first, he was accused of spraying black paint from a medical syringe on Victory banners and Russian flags hanging by building entrances on 4 and 9 May 2024. The case was opened on two counts of “rehabilitation of Nazism” (Article 354.1, Part 3 of the Criminal Code) and two counts of “desecration of the flag” (Article 329 of the Criminal Code).

In July 2024, Trofimov faced new charges. Investigators decided that in May 2023, he had also damaged a “to the heroes of the ‘special military operation’” billboard and thrown paint on a flag. Because of this, another episode of “desecration of the flag” was added, as well as a charge of vandalism motivated by political hatred (Article 214, Part 2 of the Criminal Code).