March 30 (Portal) – A Russian man sentenced to two years in prison for discrediting the army and whose daughter was taken away from him has been arrested in Belarus after fleeing house arrest, a lawyer said on Thursday.
Lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said Alexei Moskalyov, 54, was arrested in the capital Minsk, most likely for turning on his cell phone and revealing his location.
“Apparently someone made a mistake, maybe it was because they were using a cell phone,” said Zakhvatov, who was in contact with Moskalyov. “Most likely it was because he used a mobile phone improperly,” he told Portal.
Moskalyov escaped from house arrest in the town of Yefremov, south of Moscow, in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Later that same day, a court sentenced him in absentia to two years in a penal colony for discrediting the armed forces under a law passed shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
It was unclear how he got from Yefremov to Minsk, around 700 kilometers away, and what further legal consequences he would now face.
The Russian news agency RBC quoted the Belarusian Interior Ministry as confirming the arrest.
“Citizen Moskalyov was detained by police officers at the request of the Russian police,” it said.
Vladimir Biliyenko, a lawyer representing the family, told Portal he expected it would take several days to complete the formalities for Moskalyov to be sent back to Russia.
Moskalyov came to the attention of Russian police last year after his then 12-year-old daughter Masha painted an anti-war picture at school of Russia firing rockets at a Ukrainian mother and child.
He was later charged in connection with separate anti-war comments he allegedly made on social media.
The case has drawn a lot of attention in Russia and abroad, especially since Masha, now 13, was separated from her father in early March and placed in a children’s home.
Biliyenko previously told Portal he didn’t know if staff there told the teen that her father was on the run. He said he is trying to place her in the care of relatives and that a hearing is due on April 6 at which he will challenge the decision to place her in the children’s home.
Portal reporting; Writing by Mark Trevelyan
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