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The 2nd Western District Military Court of Moscow has sentenced the head of the “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” project, Sergei Davidis, in absentia to six years in a general regime penal colony on charges of justifying terrorism (Part 2, Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the project itself.
Davidis’s case was considered in a single day.
The reason for pursuing the human rights defender was his Facebook post from January 2024. At that time, Davidis reposted a “Memorial” publication about the recognition of prisoners of war from the Ukrainian Azov regiment, who were tried in Rostov-on-Don (a major city in southern Russia), as political prisoners.
The human rights defender accompanied the repost with his own comment: “Ukrainians persecuted for serving in 'Azov' are political prisoners.”
Davidis called today’s verdict illegal.
“Undoubtedly, the verdict handed down today by the military judge [Sergei] Krivosheyev does not even attempt to appear lawful and well-founded. It does not correspond even to the punitive norms of the punitive Russian criminal code. Naturally, this absurd punishment was imposed on me for expressing an opinion that in no way justified terrorism, for my human rights stance,” said Davidis.
The initiation of the criminal case against the human rights defender became known in November 2024. At that time, he was also included on Rosfinmonitoring’s list of “terrorists and extremists.” In January 2025, Davidis was arrested in absentia.