Former teacher Roman Melnichenko released from Volgograd SIZO

Roman Melnichenko, a former teacher at the Volgograd State University and an international law expert, has been released after three days of arrest. Law enforcers cited his refusal to show his passport as the reason for the accusation of disobeying policemen.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 6, it became known that Roman Melnichenko was arrested for three days on charges of disobeying policemen and fined by 30,000 roubles under the article on discrediting the Russian Army.

Roman said that he was detained in the morning on September 4 as he was leaving his home. The police told him that he had allegedly discredited the Russian Armed Forces in his statements posted in media.

"In my interview I said, 'Russians are shelling Ukrainians with drones.' They claimed that by Russians I meant soldiers of the Russian Army, and by Ukrainians – civilians. I said that I needed a linguistic expert, since in this phrase I did not mean what was indicted to me. At the same police station, they also accused me of disobeying the policemen's lawful demands during the detention. They said that I refused to show my passport," Melnichenko has explained.

He spent the first night in a detention cell. "The conditions are torturous. A small cell sized two by four meters; with benches, on which it's impossible to sleep ... In order to go to the toilet, you have to knock on the door for a long time," he has stated.

During the court session, according to Melnichenko, the judge gave him "assessments of a clearly nationalistic nature." "It was because I greeted her in Ukrainian," he has explained.

After the trial, Melnichenko was placed into the Volgograd SIZO (pre-trial prison). "I spent the first night alone, and on the second night they brought me a cellmate – a completely adequate person. The officers treated me normally. They showed sympathy," he said.

Sergey Ivaschenko, a lawyer, believes that he did not see any formal violations in Melnichenko's detention and arrest. But it is practically impossible to prove the illegality of the detention, he has stressed.