Dmitrii Pchelintsev

Native of Penza, anti-fascist Dmitry Pchelintsev was detained on the morning of October 27, 2017. Immediately after his detention, FSB officers conducted a search of his apartment, during which they seized his family’s personal phones and other electronic storage devices, as well as registered firearms—two hunting rifles and two non-lethal pistols. Then they moved to a car with a non-functioning alarm. As Pchelintsev’s wife, Angelina, recounted, FSB officers began searching the car and, at a moment when no one was watching, "found" two grenades under the rear seat. Pchelintsev claimed they had been planted on him.

Pchelintsev was arrested. After several days in the pre-trial detention center (SIZO), he stated that he intended to plead guilty. Later, Pchelintsev said that FSB officers tortured him every day—hanging him upside down, applying electric shocks to different parts of his body. In February, he was forced to retract his statements about the torture. In May, Pchelintsev declared his innocence and spoke about new torture. In September, it became known that Pchelintsev had been formally charged with organizing a terrorist group. Pchelintsev reported that the investigator had offered him a plea deal—admitting guilt in exchange for a lesser charge of participating in a terrorist group. Pchelintsev refused.

In March 2019, for unclear reasons, Pchelintsev was transferred to a facility operating as a pre-trial detention center on the grounds of Penal Colony No. 4 in the Penza region.

On December 17, the prosecution requested that the charge of preparing to set fire to a military enlistment office be dropped. The court reflected this in the verdict.

On February 10, 2020, Pchelintsev was sentenced to 18 years in a strict-regime penal colony.