The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a press release on Friday stating that Russia must release activist Alexey Sokolov from detention and drop all charges against him.

Sokolov was detained for his using “extremist symbols” on his Telegram channel and charged with “repeated demonstration of prohibited symbols” under Article 282.4 of the Criminal Code. Sokolov had posted the Facebook logo on his channel after the Russian government banned Meta, the owner of Facebook, and all of its associated entities due to their supposed extremism. The charges against the activist rest in the publicization of the platform and not the “mere using of Meta’s services.” When the ban occurred, the prosecutor’s office stated that “the use of Meta products by individuals and legal entities should not be qualifie[d] as participation in extremist activities.” 

The activist’s arrest on July 5th was posted to Russian social media, and Sokolov was “put face down on the floor and asked about his ‘status in the criminal underworld.'” According to the OHCHR, Russian police raided his property and discovered documents that were later posted to Telegram as evidence of Sokolov’s involvement in ‘”foreign intelligence networks.” The OHCHR, however, emphasized that the documents merely possessed statements from victims that were to be used by the UN to demonstrate human rights violations within Russian detention facilities.

Amnesty International’s Russia Director Natalia Zviagina stated, “With this arrest, the Russian authorities are exacting revenge against Aleksei Sokolov for his relentless defence of prisoners’ rights and for exposing torture in Russian prisons over almost two decades.”

Sokolov is a human rights activist who operates the NGO Legal Basis (Pravovaya Osnova), and the OHCHR stated that he “highlight[s] abuses within Russian detention facilities, particularly continuing torture and ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners.” Russian authorities have repeatedly scrutinized his organization, even deeming it a “foreign agent” in 2015.

Russian authorities have continuously attempted to thwart human rights operations within the country. A similar case was seen for Oleg Orlov, another human rights activist who criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as the state’s military operations by calling the government “fascist.” Orlov was charged under Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code, receiving the harshest penalty of two and a half years of imprisonment. Orlov’s lawyer said that the decision highlighted Russia’s oppression of human rights activists and stated that “[a] person’s words cannot be called extremism just because they criticize the decisions of state bodies.”