You're reading: Crimean man jailed for 6 years for ‘extremist’ posts on VK

MOSCOW – A resident of Crimea has been jailed for six years for terrorism-inciting posts on the Russian social-networking site VKontakte, a lawyer from the international human rights group Agora told Interfax on April 20.

“Today the North Caucasus district military court found Yevgeny Karakashev, a Crimean activist, guilty of public justification of terrorism and calls to terrorist activities using the Internet (parts one and two of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced him to six years of imprisonment,” Alexei Ladin said.

Karakayev’s prosecution was prompted by a video file, texts and comments in online chat rooms, he said.

“According to the inquiry, the teletext submitted for analysis… contains linguistic and psychological signs of incitement to commit violent, destructive acts’. These, investigators concluded, amounted to calls for terrorism,” Ladin said.

Karakashev himself thinks that his arrest and prosecution were to do with “his opposition to a resort development project near Yevpatoria, around the salt lake,” Ladin said.

The inquiry was launched on Jan. 31, 2018, and on Feb. 1, when public hearings were held on the development issue, Karakashev was arrested.