Yuri Samoylov, 40, has been arrested by a Moscow court for 14 days on charge of disseminating extremist materials in the form of pictures found in his smartphone, Samoylov’s brother Nikolay Lunchenkov told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Samoylov told his relatives that he was detained in the morning of 17 March in the Moscow metro after a passenger saw pictures in his phone that “discredit the Russian army” and called the police. Law enforcement agents approached Samoylov a few stations later and took him away, the man says.
Police officers then inspected his phone and charged him with spreading extremist materials. The court also reported the case.
A few hours later, Samoylov was ordered to be placed in custody for two weeks as punishment. He was then taken to a detention facility where he is still held. Once at the centre, he was allowed to call his mother and describe what happened. The relatives learnt about the arrest only at that time.
