The cell of the artist Skochylenko was searched four times in two weeks

The cell of the 32-year-old artist Sasha Skochylenko, who is in the St. Petersburg pre-trial detention center in connection with the so-called fakes about the army, was searched four times in the last two weeks. Mediazona reports this with reference to Skochylenko’s defender Margarita Kislyakova.

According to her, during one of the searches, when Skochylenko was not in the cell, a portion of her medication was confiscated. “They scattered all of Sasha’s belongings on the floor, trampled on her writings, crushed her earplugs, tore one of the books,” Kislyakova said. She added that the operatives of Skochylenko’s neighbor, on camera, needed to withdraw a complaint about searches.

Also, according to the defense attorney, the pre-trial detention center has banned the transfer of books and keeps more than three books per person in the cells. There is no hot water in the showers, while women were forbidden to carry heated water in buckets, referring to “safety considerations”.

Artist and activist Aleksandra Skochylenko has been in a pre-trial detention center for over a year. She is accused of pasting stickers on price tags in the Perekrestok store with information about the shelling of the Mariupol drama theater by the Russian military and the deaths of civilians. Skochylenko admitted the fact of distributing the stickers, but stated that the information on them is not false, and therefore she does not consider herself guilty. Skochylenko was arrested on April 13, 2022, she was one of the first people arrested in Russia for the article about the so-called fakes about the army. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

The trial is now underway. The case is being considered by the Vasileostrovsky district court of St. Petersburg. On July 6, the arrest of the artist was again extended – until October.

It is known that the accused suffers from celiac disease – gluten intolerance, because of which she can eat only a certain set of products, which are not transferred to the pre-trial detention center. Because of this, Skochylenko’s health deteriorated noticeably within an hour.

The artist’s defense has repeatedly requested that she be placed under house arrest, but the prosecutor’s office claims that “the defendant is accused of a violent and dangerous crime, her relatives live abroad, there is no reason not to believe that she will not hide from the investigation and will not leave the country, which means there are no grounds for softening the restraining order.” The court agrees with this.