In Khakassia, 36-year-old prisoner Artur Butaev is on trial for tattoos with the symbols of the extremist organization “Prisoner Criminal Unity” (AUE) banned in Russia. According to investigators, the man walked in front of his cellmates with a bare torso covered with tattoos in the form of swastikas and stars. Four more years may be added to the previous eight-year term for intentionally causing grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim. The defendant denies all charges.
On Monday, the Abakan city court began considering a criminal case against the repeatedly convicted Artur Butaev, who is accused of showing tattoos of the AUE extremist movement banned in the Russian Federation to cellmates.
As law enforcement sources told Kommersant-Sibir, in the summer of 2021, investigators detained Artur Butaev, a resident of Sayanogorsk, in a criminal case of intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim (part 4 of article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The detainee, according to the security forces, struck the offender several times with his fists in the head in a fight, which caused him to die in the hospital. By a court decision, Artur Butaev was taken into custody. In the SIZO cell, the case says, the prisoner took off his outer clothing and exposed his torso, covered with tattoos in the form of a swastika and stars that his cellmates could see.
For public demonstration of the symbols of an extremist organization, Artur Butaev was charged with an administrative offense report (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
It states that the arrested man’s tattoos, applied to his shoulders and chest, are “symbols of the banned criminal subculture AUE”, and he showed them, allegedly to “emphasize his criminal status in front of other persons under investigation.” On December 21, 2021, the court imposed a fine of 1,000 rubles on Artur Butaev under an administrative article.
The arrestee, according to the materials of the investigation, continued to openly demonstrate tattoos in a pre-trial detention center, and then in a strict regime penal colony No. 33 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Republic of Khakassia, where he was sent to serve an 8-year sentence for a fatal fight.
A criminal case has already been opened against Artur Butaev for the repeated demonstration of prohibited symbols.
Part 1 Art. 282.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment for public demonstration of the symbols of extremist organizations, if these acts are committed by a person who has already been subjected to administrative punishment, in the form of forced labor for up to four years or imprisonment for the same period.
Artur Butaev denies the accusations against him. At the end of March, the criminal case was submitted to the court, on Monday the first meeting took place, during which the indictment was announced. As Kommersant-Siberia was told in the republican prosecutor’s office, the participants in the process examined written evidence in the case, and witnesses were called to the next meeting, which is scheduled for April 17.
