A criminal case was opened due to hacking of the account of the blogger's ex-wife Lercek

The Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia has opened a criminal case on violating the secrecy of correspondence after hacking the account of the ex-husband of blogger Valeria Chekalina (Lerchek) Artyom Chekalin. This was announced on April 26 by his lawyer Konstantin Tretyak.

"Yes, I confirm," he replied to Izvestia when asked about the initiation of a criminal case.

According to law enforcement agencies, unidentified persons gained access to Chekalin's Instagram account (owned by Meta, a recognized extremist organization in Russia) and his correspondence, thereby violating the constitutional right of the victim.

It is specified that the criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Article 138 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic or other communications of citizens").

On April 13, Chekalin was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony. In addition, he will have to pay a fine of 194 million rubles. He himself said that he came to court with a "heavy heart" and warned the children that he might not return home. Prior to that, Lercek appealed to the court with a request to show mercy to her ex-husband. Lawyer Tretyakov told Izvestia that the children of the former spouses will live with their mother.