About the case

In the fall of 2017, six people were arrested in Penza and some of them were planted firearms and explosives. The detained were beaten and tortured by FSB operatives at the pre-trial detention center. The operatives attached electrodes to the different body parts of the detained and passed an electric current through them. During the tortures, the operatives forced the detained to memorize the story made-up by FSB. According to the story, the detained were the organizers and members of a terrorist group called “Network”. At the end of January of 2018, two more antifascists were arrested in St Petersburg. They were also beaten, electrocuted, and forced to incriminate themselves – to confess that they are members of the “Network”. In April of 2018, the third defendant emerged in St Petersburg. Further, in July of 2018, two more defendants from Penza were arrested. Using tortures and forged evidence, FSB fabricated the case of a terrorist organization “Network”. FSB claims that the detained were planning to cause explosions during the Russian presidential elections and the World Cup. All that is said to be “to shake the masses to further destabilize the political situation in the country” and to start an armed uprising. At the current moment, ten young men are being imprisoned. Igor Shishkin received a prison term of 3.5 years and serves his sentence in a penal colony. The defendants of the Penza part of the case of “Network” received prison terms of from 6 to 18 years. Currently, they are at the Penza pre-trial detention center. Trials of two more defendants of the case, Yuliy Boyarshinov and Viktor Filinkov, are being currently held in St Petersburg. After the case of “Network” and the tortures came to light, numerous solidarity actions started in Russia and abroad.