Lawyers locate Alexey Moskalev after several weeks, report he was severely beaten in detention in Belarus

Alexey Moskalev, who is accused of “discrediting” the Russian army and who was arrested in Belarus after fleeing house arrest, has been extradited to Russia and remanded to pre-trial detention in Smolensk. Vladimir Bilienko, a lawyer with the human rights organization OVD Info, reported Moskalev’s whereabouts after meeting with him.

Moskalev’s lawyer was unable to find out anything about his client’s whereabouts for several weeks. Bilienko said that the Federal Penitentiary Services of Russia and Belarus did not respond to requests for information about Moskalev’s location and didn’t allow Belarusian human rights activists to see Moskalev.

Moskalev reported to Bilienko that he was severely beaten and kicked on his chest and back during his detention in Belarus. He adds that the beatings tore a muscle in his right leg, and that he was struck several times in the head and had his head beaten against a wall.

Through his lawyer, Moskalev addressed activists, groups who support him, and “everyone who cares” about what has happened to him and his daughter. “Russia stands only on people like you,” he wrote.

Alexey Moskalev is the father of Masha Moskaleva, who ran into trouble with the Russian authorities after drawing an anti-war picture in sixth-grade art class. Moskalev was later charged with “discrediting” the army based on posts he had made on Russian social media networks. Moskalev escaped house arrest in late March, just before he was sentenced to two years in prison, but he was apprehended and arrested in Belarus on April 7. Masha Moskaleva was briefly a ward of the state and has since been taken in by her formerly estranged mother.