Alexei Onoshkin

Blogger, traveller, political activist and priest of the "Temple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". On 28 April 2022, Onoshkin was detained and then forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital. The reason for this was a statement by a certain citizen about the activist's suicidal tendencies because of a video in which he says that the Russian authorities are driving him to suicide. On 21 July Onoshkin was released from the hospital. On 12 August it was reported that Onoshkin had been prosecuted for "fakes", but he did not confirm it. On 16 August Onoshkin was searched and detained as a suspect. The next day the court sent him to custody. The reason was Onoshkin's post in VKontakte about the shelling of the drama theatre in Mariupol. On 3 October, the court transferred Onoshkin to a psychiatric hospital until the end of the investigation due to his mental disorder. In November, it was reported that Onoshkin was also charged with public justification of terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). The reason for the case was several comments published between March 2020 and July 2021. They mentioned the leaders of the armed struggle for the separation of Chechnya from Russia and, among other things, wrote: "It is bad to kill in general, but it is even more abominable to differentiate murderers into our own and strangers". The cases were merged and sent to trial. On 9 March 2023, the court returned the case to the prosecutor's office because of various irregularities. Onoshkin's stay in the hospital ended on 28 March, but the chief of medicine said he would not release the defendant without the prosecutor's instruction, as he was charged with "bad articles". Onoshkin's term was later extended. In September 2023, the case went back to court. On 6 October, the decision to extend Onoshkin's detention in the hospital was cancelled, but he was not released from the hospital. Initially, the case was initiated by the distribution of "fakes" on the grounds of political hatred (point "e" part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), but the court reclassified the charge to the milder first part of this article. On 11 October 2023, the court sent Onoshkin to compulsory treatment.