Criminal case against Ilyas Yakubov dropped

Investigators have stopped the criminal prosecution of Ilyas Yakubov, a Chechen athlete, who signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) while at the SIZO (pre-trial prison) and departed to the special military operation (SMO) zone in Ukraine.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ilyas Yakubov, a MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter, was detained in Moscow in October 2023 and arrested on charges of publicly justifying terrorism due to posting a video with Shamil Basaev's off-screen speech. The athlete stated that there were no proofs of his involvement in the crime in the case files.

His advocate stated that the defence would seek a conditional sentence for Yakubov. On August 30, 2024, it became known that Yakubov was included into the list of terrorists and extremists.

Earlier, Yakubov managed to reclassify the charges against him into "incitement of hatred or enmity" in order to be able to sign a contract with the MoD, since the "terrorist" article did not allow him to do so.

According to a source, Yakubov was "eager" to go to the SMO, so "investigators went to meet him halfway."

The arrested persons, except of those who figure in cases of treason, terrorism, extremism and fakes about the Russian Army, have chances to sign contracts with the MoD and end up in the SMO zone; and their criminal prosecution is terminated, human rights defenders assert.

According to their version, this has already led to the creation of a "conveyor belt of impunity." "You can commit a crime, sign a contract with the MoD, serve some time in the SMO zone, come back – and do it all over again," Maxim Vedaprav has explained.