The former mayor of the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman, who is under investigation on a controversial charge of discrediting the armed forces involved in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has been sentenced to 14 days in prison on a separate charge of distribution of extremist symbols.
A court in Yekaterinburg pronounced the ruling on March 16, hours after Roizman was detained by police.
Roizman's lawyer, Vladislav Idamzhapov, said earlier that police accused his client of reposting materials with extremist symbols on the VK social network last year. Idamzhapov added that the materials in question most likely were about jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny.
He added that his client has never had an account on VK, however.
"The report was made in the group called Yevgeny Roizman, with which he has nothing to do. There are about 20 social groups with that name [on] VK," Idamzhapov said.
In August 2022, the outspoken Kremlin critic was arrested and charged with "discrediting Russia's armed forces" involved in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine that Moscow launched on February 24, 2022.
A court in Yekaterinburg then released Roizman but barred him from communicating with anyone without permission or using the Internet, the elephone, the mail, or attending public events. His communications were limited to family members and his lawyers.
Roizman, who won election as mayor following opposition protests in 2012, pleaded not guilty.
Since leaving the post of the mayor of the country's fourth-largest city in 2018, Roizman has gained a popular following for his campaigns to raise money for sick children, and he is known for his regular jogs around the city, which attract supporters and journalists alike.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Roizman has been outspoken in his criticism of the conflict. He has been fined three times on misdemeanor charges of "discrediting" the Russian Army. If convicted on that charge in the ongoing criminal case, he may face several years in prison.
Shortly after the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law criminalizing any criticism regarding the armed forces or the conduct of the Ukraine war, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”