Murmansk student sentenced to 15 years over the meme Telegram channel “Free Lapland”

Murmansk student sentenced to 15 years over the meme Telegram channel “Free Lapland”

23-year-old Rafael Mamedov was sentenced to 15 years in prison under charges of high treason and participation in a terrorist organization. This was reported by the Telegram channel of his support group (OVD-Info noticed the post).

He is to serve the first three years in prison, and the remainder of the term in a maximum-security penal colony.

The ruling was handed down back on May 27. Prosecutors had requested an 18-year sentence for the student.

▶️ The charges

Initially, the student was charged only with participation in a terrorist organization because of the channel “Free Lapland,” which he administered.

It published memes, photographs, facts from the region’s history and mythology. In addition, it featured posts criticizing the Russian authorities and reflections on the need to preserve the cultural identity of the peoples of Russia’s northwestern regions, their alliance, as well as an alliance with the countries of Northern Europe.

At the beginning of 2025, the channel was added to the list of terrorist organizations as a structural subdivision of the “Forum of Free States of post-Russia.”

In May 2026, Mamedov was given a new charge, high treason. The support group claimed that this article was applied to him because of the same publications that had originally led to the case:

“According to the investigators, these materials allegedly caused harm to the Russian Federation. At the same time, this concerns public texts that had already previously become the subject of prosecution.”

The support group insists that the channel never published calls for terrorism or violence.

In the opinion of human rights defenders, one of the reasons for the student’s prosecution was his anti-war position.

▶️ Suicide attempts

During his imprisonment, Mamedov tried to take his own life twice. In the pretrial detention center, he cut his neck and arms, and later, while being transferred, he tried to hang himself with a belt, but a guard stopped him.

The student made his first suicide attempt shortly before his detention, in May 2025. FSB officers detained him a few days later, in a psychoneurological clinic.

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Rafael Mamedov / Photo from the support group’s channel