ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — “This warfare is the destruction of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Viktoria Petrova stated in her ultimate courtroom speech on December 21, calling Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine “a criminal offense in opposition to humanity.”
“It’s the annexation of sovereign territory, the dislocation of tens of millions of individuals, the lack of houses and family members…tens of tens of millions of tragedies,” stated Petrova, 29, at her trial in St. Petersburg. “Footage of struggling at the moment are searing into my reminiscence. Many will stay there perpetually.”
’Vika Beloved The Flawed Issues’
Since October, the closed hearings in Petrova’s trial on fees of disseminating “false” details about the Russian armed forces have taken place within the psychiatric hospital the place she has been held. Prosecutors have argued that Petrova’s purported crime was motivated and aggravated by “political hatred.”
“Apparently, within the absence of actual arguments, they select this path: when you don’t love the president, it means you don’t love your nation,” Petrova’s lawyer, Anastasia Pilipenko, instructed RFE/RL’s North.Realities. “In the event you don’t love one thing, it means you hate it. In the event you learn international media, it means you hate your nation. In response to the prosecution, Vika beloved the mistaken issues…and insidiously ignored the Protection Ministry’s briefings.”
The courtroom is predicted handy down its verdict on December 25. In a throwback to some of the reviled practices of the Soviet Union, prosecutors have requested the choose to condemn her to enforced psychiatric hospitalization.
Petrova was arrested at her house in St. Petersburg on Might 6, 2022. Brokers from the Inside Ministry’s Anti-Extremism Heart and an organized-crime unit searched her condominium and confiscated her phone, her laptop, and several other anti-war posters. Regulation enforcement had been investigating her social media posts since at the very least March 25, Pilipenko stated.
Though she had by no means been politically lively earlier than and her social media account — with about 300 readers — usually featured images from the health club and portraits of her cat, Petrova instructed police at her preliminary questioning that she had each intention of constant to write down in opposition to the warfare.
At an early courtroom listening to, the protection requested that she be held underneath home arrest pending trial.
“The choose was doing the weekend shift,” Pilipenko instructed RFE/RL on the time. “There was one fascinating second once I requested for [house arrest] and the investigator stated, ‘No objection.’ The choose requested, ‘What did you say?’ And he answered once more, ‘No objection.’ Then the choose made a bit of gesture and requested once more. This time the investigator sighed and requested the choose to put the defendant in custody.”
After she had been held for practically a 12 months with out trial, a cellmate filed a criticism in opposition to Petrova alleging that she “continued to unfold anti-war propaganda” in jail. Because of this, a choose despatched her for a psychiatric examination throughout which medical doctors decided she “couldn’t and can’t perceive her actions or management them.” It was tantamount to a analysis of psychological incompetence.
Earlier than her arrest, Petrova had by no means sought or obtained psychological care.
The courtroom then appointed a bureaucrat from the St. Petersburg district the place Petrova rented an condominium as her “authorized consultant,” regardless of a protection movement that her uncle, with whom she is shut, be named. On October 24, the courtroom ordered her confined to the Skvortsov-Stepanov Psychiatric Hospital. In response to the Telegram channel Moi Raion, which lined the listening to, the appointed authorized consultant agreed with the choice, telling the courtroom: “She has harmed herself and it’s higher she stay there. That means she gained’t offend once more.”
Forcible Injections
Since she has been in psychiatric confinement, Petrova has confronted mistreatment, Pilipenko stated. A bunch of male workers members compelled her to strip bare for a “bodily inspection.” She was not given sanitary pads whereas menstruating.
“Blood was flowing down her legs, and everybody was mocking her,” Pilipenko instructed RFE/RL.
When Petrova refused to bathe in entrance of workers members, she was threatened with corporal punishment.
At occasions, she was certain to her mattress and forcibly injected with unknown substances that left her unable to talk for days.
In her closing remarks on December 21, Petrova concluded by instantly addressing President Vladimir Putin, the federal government, the Safety Council, the members of each homes of parliament, “state propagandists,” and “all these affiliated with the so-called ‘particular army operation” — the warfare in opposition to Ukraine.
“I demand the quick cessation of army exercise on the territory of Ukraine and the quick opening of negotiations aimed on the diplomatic decision of the battle,” she instructed the courtroom. “I additionally demand the decriminalization of the [Criminal Code] articles on army censorship and the discharge and rehabilitation of all political prisoners.”
The prosecution’s closing assertion, Pilipenko argued, was an actual “instance of political hatred.”
“Solely it wasn’t a put up on social media, however an official assertion that had most probably been permitted by a number of senior bosses,” she stated. “Chilly, official, permitted, and bolstered by the facility of hatred.”