On photo: Ilya’s mother Elizaveta

‍Six criminal cases related to terrorism and incitement to terrorism have been initiated against Ilya Podkamenny, a 19-year-old resident of Irkutsk arrested in November 2022. Since then, he has been in a pre-trial detention center (SIZO). He is accused of distributing leaflets with "extremist" content, as well as wrapping wire around railway rails and allegedly raising money to set fire to a military recruitment office. Ilya faces life imprisonment, although according to his relatives, the only evidence the investigators have are anti-war leaflets and Ilya's online comments about the increasing instances of arson on railways.

Information about Podkamenny's criminal case is available on the court's website. Among the charges against him are preparation for a terrorist act, calls for or justification of terrorism, organization of terrorist activity, undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities, calls for extremism, and online calls for extremism.

Considering the totality of the charges, he faces life imprisonment, despite the fact that he "has not actually done anything harmful," according to his mother Elizaveta. Ilya himself also denies any intent to carry out a terrorist act.

In jail since November 

At the end of last week, Ilya Podkamenny passed a message to his relatives through a letter sent via the Federal Penitentiary Service’s FSIN-Pismo system, saying that his criminal case is supposed to be heard by the First Eastern District Military Court during an offsite session in Irkutsk. However, neither he nor his lawyer knows exactly when this will happen.

According to Ilya’s mother, the charges of extremism under the first part of Article 280 of the Russian Criminal Code were brought against him for the anti-war leaflets he had attached to railway rails in May 2022. As far as she knows, this episode not only served as the reason for his arrest in November 2022, but is also the only tangible evidence in the whole case.

"I still don't know what exactly he wrote on the leaflets. I assume it was something anti-war, general, about peace, and so on. There were no threats or calls to set fire to anything or to detonate anything," Elizaveta says. "The charges under the second part of this article were brought against him for some of his posts on Telegram. I understand that the channel is anonymous, meaning they haven't even proven that it was my son who wrote them. Anyway, the lawyer says that there were no calls to action there, only discussions of arsons that had already occurred on railways."

Pro-government Telegram channels have reported that Podkamenny "wrapped copper wire around rails, intending to disrupt train traffic", and also "attached sheets from a school notebook containing a message with 'extremist content' to the tracks.” Additionally, he allegedly collected money to set fire to the military recruitment office in the township of Dzerzhinsk and received donations via cryptocurrency wallets amounting to 8,000 rubles.

"The case records state that he allegedly collected funds to blow up the military recruitment office in the Irkutsk region. But there is no evidence of this [that Ilya solicited or received funds]. And that he wrapped copper wire around rails to disrupt train traffic. That’s nonsense, he didn't do that either, there is no evidence of this," Ilya's father, Vyacheslav Podkamenny, says.

Ilya's mother and father are divorced. His father admits that he has a complicated relationship with his son.

"He simply refused to communicate with me. He doesn't even want to receive letters from me. I wrote to him twice. He responded that he didn’t want to receive letters from me. As far as I know, no one has tortured or beaten him. On the contrary, he was initially treated very humanely. He was placed under house arrest. But after the start of the war, Ilya had a nervous breakdown; it seems that his mental problems became more pronounced. And he committed an act of self-harm, thereby violating the terms of his house arrest. He underwent surgery and was then sent to a pre-trial detention center," Ilya’s father says.

Ilya's friends told the editorial team that his father "is telling a story about his son's mental state" because he "does not share his views on the war in Ukraine." Ilya's mother says her son had no mental problems. Medical experts solicited by the prosecution have confirmed her words. "In the detention center, he underwent a psychiatric assessment and was recognized to be normal," Elizaveta says. "It might have been better in this case if some psychiatric diagnosis had been established. In the sense that the sentence would not be very much severe. But it is as it is—sometimes he's naive, but his reaction to the war and then to house arrest is understandable. Who among us didn't lose control after February [2022]?"

"He plans for the future and doesn't believe in life imprisonment" 

Volunteer Elena has known Ilya through correspondence just for a few months. But it was in a letter to her that he detailed his case. 

"I learned about this political prisoner (formally, Podkamenny has not yet been convicted) through a Telegram bot, which provides a random name of a political prisoner if you want to write to someone but don't know to whom. I've heard a lot about how important it is to write to political prisoners and decided to try to do that. As far as I understand, it really supports them and also helps protect them from the system because the system sees that people know and remember about this person, that he is not alone. I think a person in prison definitely needs contact with reality, especially in a Russian prison, and especially people who are unjustly convicted. Ilya seems to me to be responsive, attentive, and interested. He clearly wants to communicate now, know more about others, and do nice things for people. From the letters, it seems to me that he is a good person," Elena says.

In his letters, Ilya told her that he has 'political' cellmates. These include Ruslan Zinin, who shot a military commissariat official in Ust-Ilimsk.

“He didn't talk about his arrest. As for himself, he says that he is 'introverted, not very social’, and that he used to avoid communication with peers. He didn't have friends for a long time, and none appeared in school. Ilya dropped out of school in 10th grade. As soon as he turned 18, he started working at Subway. We didn't talk much about the war because we correspond via FSIN Pismo. He mentioned it in the following way: 'I communicate normally with my cellmates. Everyone here supports Ukraine,' Elena says. “He never mentioned his father. I understood that he has a complicated relationship with his parents: Ilya is allowed to meet with relatives twice a month, and now the permission is granted only to his grandmother. Regarding prison conditions, he says the food is tasteless, 'mostly cereals and a lot of fat.' He was recently moved to a larger cell with six people. He was glad that all of them are non-smokers.”

Ilya told Elena that he dreams of living in the USA, working in 3D animation or as a cartoonist. “I think he doesn't fully realize that he faces life imprisonment. He plans for a future out of prison - writes that he wants to create cartoons, get a proper education 'after all this,' talks a lot about traveling and learning how to program. 'My main dream is to create my own animated series about anthropomorphic cats living in a techno-magical society. It will be about the transition from a magocratic dictatorship to market anarchy. The main characters are Inflazina and Lofysu, the strongest magicians in the world and daughters of the supreme magician, heiresses to the ruling clan Xantu,' Elena quotes one of Ilya's letters.

According to his parents, he distributed leaflets on May 10, 2022. He was arrested half a year later in November. Since then, he has been in Pre-Trial Detention Center 1 in Irkutsk. 

“In early 2023, Ilya underwent a psychiatric assessment and was occasionally taken out for investigative actions. On June 30, the case was submitted to the court, and as of today, Ilya is charged with preparing for a terrorist act, organizing the financing of terrorism, and public calls for extremist activity (essentially, two charges under the same article, but different parts - one for an alleged attempt to derail a train, and the second for calls for arson on a Telegram channel),” Elena recounts Ilya's words. “Ilya does not admit these charges. The court hearing was supposed to have already taken place - on August 29 - but they 'are still waiting for judges from Khabarovsk.' He doesn't yet know the exact date of the hearing.” 

Ilya's parents have confirmed that the case has already been submitted to the court, but the hearing has been postponed several times.

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