On Wednesday, 22 July 2020, in a damp and windy Petrozavodsk, Victor Anufriev briefly addressed a large crowd of journalists and cameramen and women outside the City Court. According to BELSAT journalist Marina Makarova he indicated that his client Yury DMITRIEV had been found guilty and sentenced to three years six months’ imprisonment.

Taking into account the length of time DMITRIEV has already spent in detention centre No 1 in Petrozavodsk this means that he will be released on 12 November. Anufriev later specified that the sentence referred only to the charge of sexual abuse. (See 22 July report by Halya Coynash of the Kharkov Human Rights Group.)

At the end of the trial, earlier this month, the prosecution demanded 15 years’ imprisonment for Yury DMITRIEV in a strict regime penal colony.

Yury DMITRIEV is led into court (31 October 2019)

In an interview with the BBC, Petersburg attorney Mikhail Utkin called the sentence “unprecedented”: the minimum term specified in Article 132 is 12 years’ imprisonment.