A FSB man was interrogated at the regular court session of the case of Crimean Activist Bohdan Ziza arrested on charges of terrorism.
Ziza’s case is being heard by a judicial panel chaired by Roman Plisko in the Southern Area Military Court of Rostov-na-Donu.
According to the CHRG, Bohdan Ziza mentioned that Aleksandr Lavrov, an investigator of the Crimean FSB department, had beat him during the investigation, threatened with the conditions of staying in the pre-trial detention center and described what would happen to the artist when he was brought to prison.
During the interrogation, Lavrov denied the use of force.
During the session Mr.Ziza was also questioned about reasons and objectives of May 16, 2022 action in Yevpatoriya, when the artist had spilled yellow and blue paint on the building of the Yevpatoria occupation ‘administration’.
The prosecutor insisted that Ziza’s artistic anti-war action had been a manifestation of terrorism.
Bohdan Ziza was firm to his initial statement: “This is not terror or terrorism, this is a protest against the war.”
The next hearing is scheduled for May 22, 2022.
As reported, the RF FSB detained Mr.Bohdan Ziza, a Crimean resident, on May, 17, 2022. He was accused of having spilled yellow and blue paint on the entrance to the Yevpatoriya ‘administration’ building on the night of May 16, 2022.
On May 18, 2022, Tatyana Rotko, ‘judge’ of ‘Yevpatoriya City Court’, arrested Bohdan Ziza for two months under RF Criminal Code (CC) Article 20.3.3-1 (discrediting of the Russian armed forces).
At the beginning of June 2022, Yelena Spasionova, ‘judge’ of the ‘Supreme Court’ of Crimea, upheld the decision of the first instance ‘court’ to keep Mr.Ziza in custody. At that time Mr.Bohdan Ziza was not accused of terrorism, he was only charged under RF CC Article 30-3 (attempt to commit a crime) and Article 167-2 (deliberate destruction or damage to someone else’s property). However, RosFinMonitoring included Mr.Ziza to the updated ‘list of terrorists and extremists’.
Then, in early July 2022, additional articles were incriminated. Now he is accused of violating RF CC Article 167-2 (deliberate destruction or damage to someone else’s property by arson), Article 214 (vandalism), Article 205 (act of terror).
At the end of December 2022, the detention period for the Crimean was extended for 6 months.
Mr.Ziza has been convoyed to Rostov-na-Donu where court sessions are held.
