According to the human rights activist, after the verdict was passed in the summer of 2021, Knyazev was first transferred to Novosibirsk, and on October 12, returned to Moscow, to the Butyrka pre-trial detention center, where he is awaiting an appeal against the verdict.
“He had a conflict with his cellmates who did not want to sit with him,” said the human rights activist.
According to the POC, the convicted person explains this by the fact that after returning to Moscow he allegedly spent several days in a cell "with persons with a reduced social status."
According to representatives of the SIZO administration, there were no such persons among Knyazev's neighbors, although some of them are accused of sex crimes.
Knyazev connects the current situation with a long-standing conflict with inmates.
“Back in May, a neighbor in the pre-trial detention center attacked me, hit me with a sharp object in the ear, and his friends now, after my return, set new inmates against me,” Ivanov quoted Knyazev as saying.
The administration of the pre-trial detention center reported that the materials on this incident were sent to the investigating authorities.
"The employees of the pre-trial detention center pointed out the complex nature of Knyazev, but expressed their readiness to ensure his safety," said the interlocutor of RT.
Knyazev was detained on May 10, 2020 on charges of stealing from the apartment of the former wife of Oleg Deripaska, the chairman of the women's football committee of the Russian Football Union, Polina Yumasheva.