The Moscow Regional Court ordered the compulsory hospitalization of a 19-year-old student in a psychiatric hospital due to his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
Maxime Lypkan was tried for disseminating “false information” about the Russian Army, according to information from the news portal SOTA.
The student was 18 when he was first accused of allegedly spreading fake news about the Russian military on his Telegram and YouTube channels.
Lypkan’s trial began in November last year, but the first hearing took place behind closed doors and without the defendant, who had already been admitted to a psychiatric hospital at the request of the Russian justice system.
In February, the court trying Lypkan announced the abandonment of legal proceedings against him, but maintained the decision to leave him hospitalized.
The accused party’s lawyer, Alan Katchmazov, told AFP that his client was evaluated by a specialist (judicial doctor) and was declared partially irresponsible for his actions.
Before being arrested, the young man tried to organize a large protest on the first anniversary of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, in February last year, but Moscow authorities banned the demonstration. Lypkan then sued the capital’s City Council, but lost the case.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Russia passed a law to convict people who allegedly spread false information about the Army, a strategy to silence the opposition and civilians critical of the offensive. Those convicted can receive a sentence of up to ten years in prison.
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