Ten people who were detained at an evening of letters to political prisoners in Yekaterinburg on February 16 discovered connections from unknown devices in their Telegram accounts, reported the publication It's My City citing Ivan Doronin, the secretary of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Libertarian Party.
«Orders of «phones on the table, stand against the wall». The basis for the entire action — allegedly someone reported extremist/terrorist activities. They individually find out whose backpack is whose and which phones belong to whom, demanding passwords. Allegedly, if you don't provide a password, the phone is confiscated for up to two months and hacked», — reported an activist who was also detained on February 16.
According to Doronin, most activists gave law enforcement the passwords to their smartphones. After everyone was released from the police department, at least ten people discovered unknown connected devices in their Telegram accounts.
«On the advice of a friend, I checked the connected devices in Telegram. There turned out to be three instead of two. I immediately removed the unfamiliar device. But surely during those two hours, they were looking at my messages and chats, downloading what interested them», — one of the participants of the evening told It's My City.
Lawyer Georgy Krasnov, who assisted the detainees, suggests that in this way law enforcement could download all the chats and messages of the detainees.
On February 16, the police disrupted two evenings of letters to political prisoners that were taking place in Yekaterinburg. One event was organized by the Yekaterinburg branch of «Rassvet» and the Libertarian Party of Russia, and the other — by a support group for the accused in the «Tyumen case». From both meetings, 24 people were taken to police departments, all of whom were released without any protocols being drawn up.