Week-ending 20 November 2020
Human Rights Ombudsman in Karelia, Gennady Sarayev, said on 18 November 2020 that Gulag historian Yury Dmitriev may face news charges related to producion of child pornography.
Source:
RFE/RL, Thursday, 19 November 2020: Russian historian Yury Dmitriyev, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a controversial child sexual-abuse charge that he and his supporters reject as politically motivated, may face additional prison time on new charges. Gennady Sarayev, the ombudsman for Russia’s northwestern region of Karelia, said on November 18 that investigators claim that they have found pornographic films on Dmitriyev’s computer and have decided to charge the noted gulag researcher with producing child pornography. Dmitriyev has already been acquitted on a similar charge in the past. According to Sarayev, Dmitriyev, who is also the head of the local branch of the Memorial human rights organization, faces up to an additional 10 years in prison if found guilty. Dmitriyev was initially sentenced to 3 1/2 years in July after he was convicted of “violent acts of a sexual nature committed against a person under 14 years of age,” allegations he denies and that he believes are aimed at curbing his research into the crimes of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
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