The Memorial Human Rights Centre considers Anton Izokaytis, sentenced for swearing in a police station, a political prisoner

On January 1, 2014 resident of Staraya Russa Anton Izokaytis was taken by the police to the Starorussky inter-municipal station of the Russian Interior Ministry, according to a sentence for minor hooliganism, and placed in a cell for administrative detainees. There, as the sentence says, from 8 am to 11 am he swore with obscenities, behaved aggressively, insulted Russians, defended the use of violence against them, including in World War II, spoke favourably about the terrorist acts committed on December 30, 2013 in Volgograd, and emphasised that he was a Lithuanian, constantly mentioning his surname. He himself says that in this way he was expressing his frustration with his detention, he wanted to provoke a conflict with the police, and he was also under the influence of a large amount of alcohol.

There were six police officers and two civilians on personal matters at the police station.

As a consequence Izokaytis was sentenced by the Moscow Okrug military court under part 1, article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (Public calls to commit terrorist acts or public justification of terrorism) and under part 1, article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (Actions aimed at inciting hatred or enmity, and also at insulting the dignity of a person or group of people on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, language, heritage or religion, or who belong to any social group, committed publicly or with the use of the media) to a total of 2.5 years in a colony camp. The military collegium of the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to two years in a colony camp on June 30, 2015.

We think that the words spoken by Izokaytis in the “slammer”, no matter how offensive they were to anyone, were not public. Those who heard the defendant were a limited number of people, fewer than 10, he was in closed premises and couldn’t be heard, for example, by other passers-by on the street, he wasn’t recorded and didn’t distribute his statements afterwards.

The propaganda of violence, extremism and terrorism only presents a public danger when it finds some followers who would like to implement such actions in practice. The majority of Izokaytis’s involuntary listeners were police officers, who by definition should be resistant to the propaganda of terrorism, extremism, force and discrimination.

At the same time we allow that the people who felt offended could have sued the author of the statements for compensation for moral harm.

We think that the use of the anti-terrorist and anti-extremist articles in relation to harmless drunken aggression testifies to a political motive on the part of the investigating bodies and the court. The inappropriate use of legislation on extremism and terrorism shows the presence of a political order for an artificial increase in the number of such cases with the aim of creating an atmosphere of intolerance and a search for enemies.

A punishment for non-public statements as if for public ones could become a dangerous precedent, expanding a repressive practice.

At present we cannot find out the location where Anton Izokaytis is serving his sentence. According to the sentence, he should appear at the territorial body of the criminal-executive system within 10 days after June 30 for transfer to a colony camp.

Recognising a person as a political prisoner or as being persecuted for political motives does not mean either the agreement of the Memorial Human Rights Centre with his views and statements, or approval of his statements or actions.

More on the Izokaytis case on the Memorial website.