A teenager from the Russian Federation was detained in Yerevan, accused of preparing a terrorist attack

In Yerevan, the police detained a teenager from Volgograd, Yaroslav Inozemtsev, who was tried in Russia on charges of preparing a terrorist attack at a school. He is detained for 72 hours, after which a trial will be held on his possible extradition to Russia. 17-year-old Yaroslav himself considers the case against him fabricated because of his political position. In Russia, the court found him insane and sentenced him to compulsory psychiatric treatment.

As Inozemtsev’s mother, Yulia, told the “Sota” publication, her son, on the advice of the “Armenian Helsinki Group” lawyer, has already written a request to the police to grant him political asylum in Armenia. Yaroslav told the police that he was in danger in Russia.

In Yerevan, Yulia and Yaroslav Inozemtsev issued visas to go to Europe. Volunteers of the Dozor project helped the young man to leave Russia, and it became known about his departure in March. According to Yulia Inozemtseva, the teenager’s whereabouts were reported to the Russian security forces by his father – as she believes, in order to obtain the return of his ex-wife. After that, the Armenian police made an arrest.

• Yaroslav Inozemtsev was arrested in June 2020, when he was 14 years old. During the search, the security forces seized a “homemade explosive device” – a firecracker, the power of which, according to the lawyer, would be enough to blow up a cardboard box – and 18 “Molotov cocktails”. According to the investigation, the schoolboy was planning to commit a terrorist attack in the school where he studied, planning to kill the headmaster and one of the students. Inozemtsev himself stated that he was going to use the confiscated items for entertainment purposes. Six months later, the article was reclassified as preparation for a terrorist attack.
• In February 2021, the examination of the Serbian Institute in Moscow found Inozemtsev insane. In April, he was transferred from a pre-trial detention center to a psychiatric hospital. In July 2022, Inozemtsev was found guilty of attempted terrorist act, illegal storage of explosives and manufacture of explosive devices. He was prescribed compulsory psychiatric treatment. The family filed an appeal. In January 2023, the Court of Appeal approved the decision. After that, the foreigner and her mother managed to leave for Armenia with the help of human rights activists.
• In the video about his departure, Inozemtsev said that the case against him was fabricated: “I was an ordinary teenager with ordinary hobbies. They decided to make me a terrorist because of my anti-government and anti-Putin posts on social networks.” The teenager’s family claimed the political nature of the persecution, as he published anti-Putin posts on social networks. Inozemtsev confirmed that he is against the war in Ukraine and against the Russian authorities.