In Moscow, a driver has been sent to a pre-trial detention centre on charges of state treason. They reported torture and “revolving door arrests.”

On 29 August, the Meshchansky District Court in Moscow remanded 56-year-old delivery driver Oleg Kuryaev in custody on charges of state treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona drew attention to the case’s card.

Kuryaev’s lawyer, Roman Isaev, told the publication that FSB officers detained his client after a search of his flat on 8 July.

The next day, the Mozhaisky City Court sentenced the Moscow Region resident to 12 days’ administrative arrest. He was found guilty of disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The court ruling states that on the evening of 8 July, a security officer stopped Kuryaev “for questioning about involvement in a crime.” However, the man allegedly tried to run away.

The man from the Moscow Region did not admit guilt and said he had gone to the police station voluntarily.

Shortly before the end of his sentence, a new protocol was drawn up against him. He was charged with petty hooliganism (Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). According to the court, Oleg Kuryaev “used coarse obscene language in a public place.” On 24 July, the Ruza District Court sentenced the driver to another 15 days in detention.

The man did not admit guilt. He explained that on the day he was due to be released from the detention facility, the police took him to the station where they drew up a false protocol.

On 1 August and 15 August, the Cheryomushki District Court and the Simonovsky District Court once again considered protocols relating to petty hooliganism charges against Kuryaev for obscene language in public places. Both courts also imposed 14-day detention sentences.

At a hearing in early August, the Moscow Region resident explained that when he was released from the detention facility, unknown people in civilian clothes and balaclavas put him in a car and took him to the police station in the Konkovo district. There, another protocol was drawn up against him. Kuryaev refused to sign the document.

He also disagreed with the second protocol from 15 August.

Kuryaev was supposed to be released from the special detention centre in Sakharovo on the evening of 28 August. Instead, he was taken from there to the FSB building on Lubyanka, according to his lawyer Roman Isaev.

According to the defence lawyer, the Moscow Region resident was beaten and tortured with a stun gun at night. On 29 August, the court sent Kuryaev to a pre-trial detention centre. He once again said he did not agree with the charges against him.

Speaking to Mediazona, lawyer Isaev noted that, according to the investigation, Kuryaev used his work “Gazelle” van to “drive around infrastructure sites and send photos to Ukrainian intelligence.” Law enforcement claim the accused also “had a negative attitude towards the Russian Federation leadership and the armed forces.”

• The defence lawyer does not know why the FSB became interested in the Moscow Region resident. However, as Mediazona points out, leaked databases list Kuryaev’s surname among “opposition activists.”
• Before his July arrest, Oleg Kuryaev lived in Shcherbinka, a town in the Moscow Region, with his wife and two underage children. He worked as a delivery driver and as a private entrepreneur, transporting cargo in his “Gazelle” van around the Moscow Region and other parts of Russia.