Ilya was detained and convicted for allegedly punching a riot police officer in the face. On October 17, 2020, students gathered for a march to express their disagreement with the violence following the rigged elections. Dozens of people were detained that day, including BNTU students. Ilya tried to run away from the riot police, but fell and hit his elbow. The riot police officer said that the student hit him in the face with his knee during the arrest. “It was unintentional. I was running away, maybe I just accidentally hit you. I didn’t feel it. I was just running away and fell,” Ilya said when he was forced to comment on “his actions” on video.
According to human rights activists, he will have served his entire sentence in the fall of 2022.
