The prosecutor of the Rostov Regional Court asked the court to give 11 years in prison to 40-year-old opera singer Vadim Cheldiev for announcing a rally held against covid restrictions in Vladikavkaz in the spring of 2020. This is reported by "Osnova" with reference to his lawyer Batraz Kulchiev.
Cheldiev lived in St. Petersburg in 2020 and published announcements of a rally in Vladikavkaz against the “self-isolation regime” on his Telegram channel. The action was attended by about one and a half thousand people, it ended with clashes between the participants and the security forces and mass detentions. After that, Cheldiev was accused of organizing mass riots (Part 1 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code) and inciting extremism.
Before the rally, the singer was charged with “fake news” because of a post about the coronavirus, was detained and escorted from St. Petersburg to Vladikavkaz. According to investigators, on the way from the Mineralnye Vody airport, Cheldiev allegedly punched one of the security officials, and a new case was opened against him – about an attack on a policeman. After his arrest, he spent more than two years in a pre-trial detention center.
Other defendants in the case, 56-year-old “citizen of the USSR” Ramis Chirkinov and 31-year-old Post Bank employee Arsen Besolov, were asked to be sentenced to 9 years in prison. They are accused only of organizing riots. Most of those detained at the rally against restrictions due to the pandemic were placed under administrative arrest by the courts. More than 20 people received real terms on charges of participating in the riots and attacking the security forces.