Viktor Filinkov, convicted in the 'Network' case, deported to Kazakhstan

Viktor Filinkov, sentenced in the 'Network' case, has been released after seven years of imprisonment and deported to Kazakhstan, reports NewsBox.

On January 22, Viktor Filinkov, convicted in the 'Network' case, was freed from Correctional Colony No. 1 in the Orenburg region. Following his release, he was handed over to the Kazakh border guards, where he was deported. According to 'Mediazona,' Filinkov was given back the green jacket in which he had been arrested in 2017. It was this same jacket in which FSB officers tortured him with electric shocks to extract confessions.

Filinkov, a citizen of Kazakhstan, was declared 'undesirable' for residence in Russia as early as 2021 while serving his sentence. He was banned from entering Russia for a period of eight years. Such restrictions are often applied to individuals convicted under terrorism-related charges, clarifies 'Mediazona.'

The 'Network' case became one of the most controversial in modern Russian legal practice. In the fall of 2017, a group of leftist activists from Penza was accused of participating in a terrorist organization. Despite numerous reports of torture, fabricated evidence, and the lack of any real signs of terrorist activity, seven defendants were sentenced in 2020 to terms ranging from six to 18 years. Filinkov was given five and a half years of imprisonment.