Historian Yuri Dmitriev is sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on sexual abuse charges and should go free in November because of time already served

A court in Petrozavodsk has sentenced historian Yuri Dmitriev to three and a half years in prison for violent sexual actions against his underage foster daughter. Given the time Dmitriev has already served in pretrial detention, he should go free in November 2020. (His release date was originally reported as mid-September.) State prosecutors wanted him imprisoned for 15 years.

At the time of this writing, the verdict in Dmitriev’s case is not yet officially verified and his lawyer, Viktor Anufriev, told reporters that he is still waiting for the text of the judge’s ruling. Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Anufriev also said that Dmitriev has been acquitted of felony charges that he created child pornography and illegally owned a firearm.

Update: Dmitriev’s 3.5-year sentence has been confirmed in a statement published on the Petrozavodsk City Court’s website.

Yuri Dmitiev’s case began back in December 2016, when police responded to an anonymous tip and raided Dmitriev’s home, discovering nude photographs on his computer of his then 11-year-old foster daughter. In April 2018, he was acquitted, but Karelia’s Supreme Court overturned the ruling after two months and returned the case to prosecutors, who promptly brought new charges.