The latest hearing in the second trial of Yury DMITRIEV, scheduled for Wednesday 3 June, was deferred until mid-June when a verdict in the long drawn out trial is expected.

This leaves Dmitriev in the Petrozavodsk Detention Centre. At the last hearing his detention was extended, for a further three months, until 25 June despite mounting public concern that the 64-year-old researcher is being held in crowded conditions when cases of COVID-19 have been registered in Karelia’s penal system.

Thousands in Russia and abroad have signed two petitions, calling for Dmitriev to be placed under house arrest for the rest of the trial and 150 of Russia’s noted public figures, writers, actors and others added their names to such an appeal in early May. The Supreme Court of Karelia would not consider such a petition from Dmitriev’s defence, however, and it now appears that he will remain in custody, and at risk of infection, at least until the next court hearings in his case, scheduled for 15 and 16 June.