Yuri Kokhovets

Kokhovets, who had previously worked in a printing house and later in the disinfection business, was detained on 25 March 2023 and taken to the Yaroslavl District Police Department. There, he learned that he was being charged under a case involving the dissemination of "fakes" about the army. As a preventive measure, he was placed under a travel ban and was held in police custody until midday on 27 March. He was then released with a 500-ruble fine for petty hooliganism (under Article 20.1 of the Administrative Offence Code), which allowed the police to detain him for up to 48 hours. Initially charged under the first part of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code, his charges were later upgraded to the dissemination of deliberately false information about the Armed Forces with political hatred as the motive (point "d" part 2 of Article 207.3).

On 22 April 2024, Kokhovets was sentenced to five years of forced labor. However, on 17 September 2024, the appellate court replaced the forced labor sentence with imprisonment in a general-regime colony.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our politically motivated criminal prosecutions in Russia database