Blogger Yuri Khovansky released from jail under house arrest

In June 2021, Yuri Khovansky was charged under the article on public justification of terrorism for a stupid song on a stream.

His home was searched, and Khovansky himself was taken into custody.

The Investigative Committee said that the blogger broadcast on the Internet a performance of a song about hostage-taking in a theater on Dubrovka, which contained “calls to carry out terrorist activities:

Nord-Ost – it was ******** [wonderful]. How many Russian children were killed. … All in the name of Chechnya!

For the performance of this song, Khovansky faces up to 7 years in prison.

However, the lawyer of Yuri Khovansky stated that Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation could not be applied because at the time of the song’s performance, and this was in 2012, the article did not provide for punishment for public justification of terrorism on the Internet.

As a result, the investigation could not prove that Khovansky performed the song after 2012 and was forced to replace the measure of restraint from detention to house arrest after the expiration of the statute of limitations for detention.

Khovansky is forbidden to use the Internet and communicate with witnesses.

A crowd gathered near the courthouse where the decision on the measure of restraint for Yuriy Khovansky was announced and someone tried to sing the anthem of Ukraine.

Yuri Khovansky has his own channel in Yotube where he publishes videos in which he discusses various topics. Khovansky sometimes criticized the authorities, but did so in a mocking and harmless manner.