Farafonov Nikolay Nikolaevich

A criminal case for defamation was initiated against political prisoner Nikolai Faranov, who is being held in SIZO-1 in Syktyvkar, in April 2024. The details of the charges are unknown. Nikolai himself suggests that one of his informers "dug up an old internet squabble" with him and sued him. No later than October 23, 2024, the court found Nikolai Farafonov guilty and sentenced him to 200 hours of compulsory labor, which was replaced by 15 days of imprisonment. The total term of imprisonment for the man will be six years and 15 days. No information about the appeal is available. On September 7, 2023, in the city of Vuktyl, Komi Republic, security forces came to search a local resident, the author of the anti-war Telegram channel "Cynical Komyak, Nikolai Farafonov." "5. The reason for the search was certain statements from citizens about insults on social networks, as well as about anti-fascist pictures and posts." After Farafonov's detention, he was taken to the police station in Vuktyl, where he was questioned until late evening as part of pre-investigation actions, and then released, having confiscated his phone. On September 20, Farafonov was detained again. He was charged with calls for terrorism. The reason for the criminal prosecution was posts in the Telegram channel "Cynical Komyak" posted on September 23 and 24, 2022. According to the investigation, the posts contained "public calls for terrorist activity, for committing acts that intimidate the population and create a danger of death, significant property damage and other grave consequences in order to destabilize the activities of government bodies and influence their decisions to cease the special military operation on the territory of the DPR, LPR and Ukraine." It is also claimed that Farafonov on April 28, 2023, on VKontakte, published comments and a video to the article "The resident of Komi who tried to set fire to the military enlistment office was not released from the pre-trial detention center.... One comment said: "Heroine of our time. Another one - 'Burn down the military enlistment office - save your son'. According to the investigation, the comments and video are aimed at publicly justifying terrorism: the actions of 61-year-old Nadezhda Kornilova, who was accused of attempting to set fire to the building of the military commissariat in Usinsk. The court sent the activist to a pre-trial detention center. 27 March 2024, the 1st Western Military District Court found Nikolai Farafonov guilty and sentenced him to six years in a general regime penal colony. Also, the court prohibited Farafonov from administering internet sites for three years after his release. On June 25, 2024, the Appellate Military Court left the sentence unchanged.