Yury Khovansky
The 31-year-old well-known YouTube blogger Yuri Khovansky, who has been in the Kresty pre-trial detention center in St. Petersburg for several months on charges of justifying terrorism, wrote an open letter. In it, he said that the investigation offered him to conclude a deal, and also asked for help from all people who were not indifferent to him. Khovansky said that his girlfriend Maria received threats as well.
In 2012, Khovansky sang a song about the terrorist attack on Dubrovka – for this he was arrested six months ago. Khovansky called his act, which he had long repented of, “immoral” and stupid. “
There is no moral justification for my action
– he writes.
At the same time, Yuri noted that his act had expired, but, despite this, he continues to be kept in a pre-trial detention center. In the letter, he says that the article under which he is accused appeared only in 2016. What is happening to him, according to Khovansky, “does not in any way fall under the definition of legality.”
Despite the fact that the whole country knows that I sang that song in 2012, the investigation refuses to accept evidence of this, because they understand that they will have to let me go, and they cannot allow this,
– he noted in the letter.
He added that the investigation brought in “dummy witnesses” who said they saw him performing the song in 2018:
Their testimony is ridiculous, but when I read them, I didn't want to laugh – I wanted to cry .
In court, their testimony was accepted, in contrast to the evidence of the defense.
Khovansky was offered a deal: to testify that he performed this song in 2018, to abandon his lawyer and agree to a lawyer proposed by the investigation. For agreeing to fulfill these conditions, he was promised a fine and release, for refusing the deal – a real prison term.
He also said that the investigators had already threatened him before – they promised to plant drugs on his beloved Maria.
I'm scared and I don't know what to do. I was afraid in a pre-trial detention center before, but I never had to be afraid for loved ones on the other side of the fence. I did not think that in Russia in 2021 an investigator could openly threaten the family of the accused and demand to confess to what he did not commit. It's not the 37th year in the yard, I thought. Now I don't know what to think anymore. I ask, no, I beg – help me. Don't let them harm my family. Don't let them put something on the computer or put me in prison according to the testimony of false witnesses! After all, the law must be respected even for those you don't like,
– Khovansky turned to the public.
Yuri Khovansky's girlfriend Maria Nelyubova
The blogger added that every third in the Kresty pre-trial detention center is imprisoned because of perjury, and called for an end to the lawlessness.
Now it is not just my fate that is being decided, now the framework of permissiveness, which the investigating authorities allow themselves, is being determined. After all, anyone can go to the web archive and make sure that I sang that song in 2012. After all, it is impossible for the judges to look at black and rule that it is white. People should not be allowed to be judged not according to the law, but because of public resonance. These werewolves in uniform should not be allowed to threaten our loved ones. Please help me! They'll just kill me without you
– he concluded.
Khovansky's letter received a great public response. Ksenia Sobchak noted that “it is impossible to read it calmly.”
Freedom to Hove!
– she wrote.
Netizens also call for the blogger's release and send him words of support.
