Russian court drops criminal charges against YouTuber Khovansky

A court in St. Petersburg has dropped the criminal charges against Russian YouTuber Yury Khovansky, Pavel Chikov, the head of independent human rights organisation Agora, says.

Khovansky was accused of public justification of terrorism over a song he performed about the 2002 hostage crisis at the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow.

According to Chikov, the criminal charges were initially filed under the second part of the Russian Criminal Code article on justification of terrorism, as the investigation suggested that Khovansky had performed the song in 2018. The defence was able to prove that the YouTuber performed the song in 2012, when those actions fell under the first part of the article, which has a statute of limitations of six years. This is why the court dropped the charges.

“The end of Yury Khovansky’s criminal prosecution constitutes grounds for his exclusion from the list of extremists and terrorists,” Chikov points out.

The videoblogger was detained in June 2021. The song in question contained swear words aimed at children that were killed in the terrorist attack. According to the prosecution, the lyrics contained “elements of public calls for terrorism, public justification and propaganda of terrorism”.

In December, Khovansky filed a motion to change his measure of restraint. After that, he was placed under de facto house arrest. The YouTuber faced from 5 to 7 years behind bars.