Vladimir Osipov. Photo: SOTAvision
A 56-year-old man accused of posting “false information” about the Russian military has died in a pre-trail detention centre in the north-western Russian city of Ukhta, the human rights project Penal Advocate reported on Wednesday.
The deceased, Vladimir Osipov, was sentenced to six and a half years in a prison colony in November for posts he made on Russian social media site Odnoklassniki critisicing Vladimir Putin, condemning the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure by the Russian military, and calling the invasion “a shameful war by a shameful president”.
Having been held in a detention centre in Kolomna, a city approximately 110 kilometres south of Moscow, until January, Osipov was transferred to Ukhta, over 1,500 kilometres away, and, according to independent Russian media SOTAvision, was awaiting a postponed hearing for the court appeal of his sentencing, set to take place on 19 March.
Osipov refused to plead guilty to the charges, and according to his wife and daughter was badly beaten by law enforcement officers. He was in poor health, and at the time of his November sentencing, SOTAvision reported that, due to his suffering from high blood pressure, an ambulance was called to nearly every hearing, and the judge chose to interpret statements about his poor health as a refusal to speak, depriving him of the opportunity to make a final statement before sentencing.
Earlier in March, SOTAvison reported that Osipov attended a Moscow court hearing virtually from Ukhta, and when asked by court representatives whether he understood his rights as they had been explained, replied “I don't understand the rights, because I don't have them”.
The independent Russian human rights project Support for Political Prisoners.Memorial recognised Osipov as a political prisoner, and on Wednesday updated his status in their “lists of the persecuted”.
