The head of the Karelian Memorial, historian Yuri Dmitriev, who is currently serving a 15-year sentence in the colony IK-18 of the Republic of Mordovia, was forced to refuse a 20-kilogram parcel with vital things and products. Such a parcel can be sent only once every four months. This is reported by Radio Liberty with reference to one of Dmitriev's acquaintances.
Dmitriev was told that either he received a package or new glasses to replace the broken ones. This condition was set by Vladimir Golubyatnikov, the head of colony IK-18, when Dmitriev's lawyer came with new glasses.
The historian had to agree, as ahead of him are court hearings on a complaint about one of the many deportations to the ShIZO. Without glasses, he will not be able to work with documents.
The historian is serving his sentence in IK-18 in the village of Potma. He was detained in 2016 on charges of making pornography with the participation of his adopted daughter. Two years later, he was acquitted, but later the court overturned the acquittal. In 2018, another case was added to the charge – about violent actions against a child. In the summer of 2020, the Petrozavodsk city court sentenced Dmitriev to 3.5 years in prison. The historian pleaded not guilty.
At the end of September of the same year, the Supreme Court of Karelia increased the sentence under the first article to 13 years. At the same time, the court overturned the acquittal under articles on the production of pornography, indecent acts and possession of weapons. These cases were sent for a new trial in the new composition of the Petrozavodsk court.
At the end of December 2021, Dmitriev's sentence was increased to 15 years.
As director of the Karelian "Memorial" Dmitriev studied the mass graves in Sandarmokh and Krasny Bor. In total, about 150 grave pits were recorded and marked, in which there could be about 4.5 thousand bodies of people who were shot during the years of Stalinist repressions.
More than 400 scientists and artists from Europe and the United States signed an open appeal demanding the release of the historian. Earlier, Yuri Dmitriev received the Moscow Helsinki Group Prize for his historical contribution to the protection of human rights and the human rights movement.