Russia: Special Rapporteur Reiterates Call For Immediate Release Of Alexei Gorinov

GENEVA (30 December 2024) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, today reiterated calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Alexei Gorinov, a former municipal deputy imprisoned in Russia under ‘war censorship’ legislation targeting peaceful dissent following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“I am outraged by the severity of the punishments imposed on peaceful anti-war voices in today’s Russia. Alexei Gorinov is paying an incredibly high price for exercising his freedom of speech,” Katzarova said.

Russian authorities brought a second criminal case against Gorinov and he was sentenced to a further three years in prison on 29 November 2024. Gorinov has been arbitrarily detained since April 2022.

On 15 March 2022, Gorinov spoke at a municipal council meeting opposing a planned children’s drawings contest, calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine an aggression and saying that Ukrainian children were dying in it every day. He was later arrested for ‘knowingly disseminating false information’ and sentenced to seven years in prison on 8 July 2022.

He was the first known person in Russia to be sentenced under ‘war censorship’ laws targeting dissidents following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Gorinov was convicted under article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code, on purported charges of spreading ‘false information about the Russian army’.

“The law was reminiscent of notorious article 58 of the Soviet Criminal Code on ‘anti-soviet propaganda’, once used to prosecute individuals for political dissenting views,” Katzarova said.

“Despite repeated calls by me, the international community and Russian civil society for Gorinov’s release and access to adequate healthcare, the opposite has occurred,” she said. “Russian authorities continue prosecuting Gorinov and other individuals for political reasons.”

The second criminal case brought against Gorinov accused him of commenting on Ukraine’s army attack on the Crimean bridge while in prison hospital, under article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code, which criminalises ‘public justificiation of terrorism’.

With the cumulative sentence, Gorinov will be forced to spend five more years in the penal colony, in harsher detention conditions.

“In addition to arbitrary detention and sham trials, Alexei Gorinov’s condition of detention amounts to torture,” Katzarova said.

In his last appearance before the Vladimir Military Court, Gorinov revealed that he had no access to adequate medical treatment. He was subjected to punitive measures, including prolonged solitary confinement in a punishment cell known as SHIZO, with mandatory check-ins every two hours around the clock, leading to sleep deprivation.

For nearly two weeks in 2023, Gorinov’s whereabouts remained unknown, despite efforts by his lawyers to be granted access to him, thus, subjecting him to enforced dissapearance. On 25 December 2023, a lawyer was informed that Gorinov had been hospitalised for a serious health condition.

“I will continue to call for the release of political prisoners, whose number has risen to nearly 2000 and possibly many more,” Katzarova said. She referred to her latest reportto the Human Rights Council, which found that ‘war censorship’ and ‘terrorism’ legislation under which Gorinov was tried and sentenced, are systematically used to target peaceful protesters and dissenting voices in Russia. In a separate Opinion of November 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Gorinov’s detention to be arbitrary and called for his release from prison.

“The abuse of national security legislation to silence dissent in Russia must end,” the Special Rapporteur said.

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