Russian court sentences Memorial Head to 6 years for calling persecuted Ukrainian POWs political prisoners
Russia’s Second western district military court in Moscow has sentenced Sergei Davidis, Head of the renowned Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project, to six years’ imprisonment for reposting Memorial’s recognition of 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war as political prisoners. The sentence this time was, at least, passed in absentia, unlike that against another Memorial Head, Oleg Orlov, who was earlier imprisoned for an article critical of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. And, as Davidis himself noted, unlike that against hundreds of others, including very many Ukrainian political prisoners and prisoners of war, as well as a huge number of civilians abducted from occupied Ukrainian territory and imprisoned without any status or charges being laid.
On 19 August 2025, ‘judge’ Sergei Krivosheyev from the above military court found Davidis guilty of ‘justifying terrorism on the Internet’ under Article 205.2 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code. There was only one ‘hearing’, with this seemingly used for prosecutor O.A. Alayeva to demand a 6-year sentence and for Sergei Krivosheyev to oblige. Davidis noted later that none of this had been in any way unexpected, with the only point of conjecture among his colleagues being the size of the sentence given the degradation of Russia’s justice system. The sentence, passed by Krivosheyev on 19 August “does not even try to appear lawful and well-founded. It does not even comply with the punitive norms of Russia’s punitive criminal code. The absurd sentence has, evidently, been passed against me for expressing my opinion which in no way justified terrorism, for my human rights position. The Azov prisoners of war are, undoubtedly, political prisoners, as are many hundred other Russians, Ukrainians and citizens of other countries, illegally deprive of their liberty for political motives.”
As reported, criminal charges under Article 205.2 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code were brought against Davidis in January 2025 over his Facebook repost of the Memorial statement declaring the 24 Ukrainian POWs then on ‘trial’ in Russia to be political prisoners. The charges against the prisoners of war were based on a politically motivated and secretive Supreme Court ruling from 2 August 2022 which declared the Azov Regiment, which is part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, a ‘terrorist organization’. The ruling was widely understood to be a ploy aimed at justifying Russia’s revenge against imprisoned Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol, many of whom were from the Azov Regiment. Prisoners of War have protected status; and international law clearly prohibits their prosecution for military service. Russia’s use of surreal ‘terrorist’ charges against POWs also runs roughshod over the fundamental principle that the law is not retroactive since the vast majority of POWs against whom such charges have been laid were taken into Russian captivity months before the Azov Regiment was declared ‘terrorist’.
Russia is standardly violating under principle of law, namely the presumption of innocence, with those against whom it brings politically motivated ‘terrorism’ charges added to Russia’s notorious ‘Register of extremists and terrorists. This includes well over a hundred Crimean Tatar civic journalists and activists, and, since November 2024, Sergei Davidis.
One unexpected benefit of the criminal charges against Davidis was that the prosecution was forced to attach a copy of the Supreme Court ruling which had, up till then, been kept secret. Memorial published the ruling on 27 June 2025, suggesting in its commentary that the secrecy had probably been because of the glaring weakness of the arguments given and the contempt it demonstrated for the law. The same is true of two other rulings, issued by Russia’s notorious Southern District Military Court, claiming that two other parts of Ukraine’s Armed Forces - the Aidar Battalion and Donetsk Battalion are also ‘terrorist organizations’. Russia is currently using all three rulings to bring horrifically long sentences against men taken prisoner while defending Ukraine. In some cases, the charges have been laid, and sentences passed, against men or women whose role in a given military unit had long ended.
See: Russia’s ‘Azov trial’ – one Ukrainian POW tortured to death, 23 given monstrous sentences
Russia churns out surreal ‘terrorism’ sentences against Ukrainian POWs for defending Ukraine
It is fortunate that Davidis is out of the reach of Russia’s punitive ‘justice system’ as the regime had already brought criminal charges and imprisoned one prominent Memorial head, Oleg Orlov, for expressing his opposition to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Worth noting that Russia’s aggressive measures to ban both International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Centre were also linked with Memorial’s unwavering opposition to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its persecution of political prisoners. A major excuse for getting the Memorial Human Rights Centre [MHRC] banned was the claim that its defence of political prisoners, including an ever-increasing number of Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians imprisoned for their faith or involvement in the vital Crimean Solidarity human rights movement constituted ‘justification of terrorism’. There neither is, nor ever was, any ‘terrorism’, with men receiving sentences of up to 20 years’ maximum-security imprisonment on the basis of a flawed and also highly secretive Supreme Court ruling from February 2003.
See: Russia claims that by naming its political prisoners, Memorial is ‘justifying terrorism’
The Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project has continued the vital work which the banned MHRC carried out, and is now under attack, with Moscow using its same dishonest arsenal against the human rights organization.