OREANDA-NEWS. The Supreme Court of Russia has requested for verification the materials of the case of the head of the Karelian branch of the Memorial human rights center, historian Yuri Dmitriev, who was sentenced to 13 years on charges of «violent acts of a sexual nature» (Part 3.4 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code), Russian media reported on Thursday, September 2, citing a file on the court's website.

The lawyers appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation at the end of June. The decision to claim the case was made on the last day of the deadline provided for the consideration of the application. In February of this year, the Third Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction upheld Dmitriev's sentence without changes, «despite the violations that occurred during the review of the case on appeal», the lawyers said.

Yuri Dmitriev was detained in 2016 on charges of producing pornography with the participation of an adopted daughter. Two years later, the historian was acquitted, but later the court overturned the acquittal. In 2018, another case was added to the charge — about violent actions against a child. In the summer of 2020, the Petrozavodsk City Court sentenced Dmitriev to 3.5 years in a penal colony. The historian did not admit his guilt.

At the end of September of the same year, the Supreme Court of Karelia increased the sentence under the first article to 13 years. At the same time, he canceled the acquittal on articles on the production of pornography, indecent acts and possession of weapons. These cases are sent for a new hearing in the new composition of the Petrozavodsk court.

As director, Dmitriev studied the mass graves he discovered in Sandarmokh and Krasny Bor. In total, about 150 grave pits were recorded and marked, in which about 4,500 bodies of people who were shot during the years of Stalin's repressions could be located.