When a Russian prankster faked a coronavirus seizure on the Russian metro, he sparked a passenger stampede that resulted in a devastating situation. In the video, Karomatullo Dzhaborov, 26, filmed himself falling to the floor of the subway train while appearing to suffer a seizure. He staged his prank while in Moscow back in February 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic had yet to be declared – but the virus was still terrifying people around the world.
Passengers on the train did not know what was going on when Dzhaborov fell to the floor in a faked seizure. When people realized he was seizing because of the coronavirus, passengers try to flee the infected train car as people shout about how the man might be having a seizure as a result of the novel coronavirus strain that was going around the world.
The prank resulted in punishment for Dzhaborov, who was sentenced to two years and four months in a Russian penal colony for staging the coronavirus scare in Moscow.
However, Dzhaborov was not able to stage the stunt by himself. He employed the help of two accomplices, Stanislav Melikhov and Artur Isachenko, who was also sentenced to two years in a penal colony – but they were lucky to have their sentence suspended for three years.
Dzhaborov’s lawyer Aleksey Popov claimed that the young prankster was simply trying to raise awareness of COVID-19 with his stunt. However, it seemed like he was just trying to gain publicity for his fake seizure at a time when the world was terrified of the spreading virus.
Popov said, “He has a bunch of videos on different topics that are important for our society. His goal was to turn people’s attention to the fact that people need to wear masks and protect themselves from a dangerous virus.”
Readers on Daily Mail were horrified to hear about the details of this Russian’s prank. Because he was trying to terrorize his countrymen and women as the coronavirus continued to spread beyond the borders of China – which is Russia’s neighbor – people felt he deserved the prison term for his video stunt.
“Not funny at all,” one person wrote.
“The need for attention overrode his minuscule intelligence.”
“Pranksters, take note. It is not funny, and there are consequences.”
“All for the sake of likes. Unbelievable.”
“Two years in a penal colony. Why don’t we have places like that? Somewhere to send people who are a nuisance to wipe the smirk off their faces.”
The footage originally appeared on a prank website on February 2, 2020, but was promptly deleted when it received a negative response from the public. Although the video was filmed in Moscow, it is not clear exactly where within the city the video was filmed.
Russian authorities arrested Dzhaborov on February 3, detaining him on suspicion of criminal hooliganism. The maximum penalty for this charge is five years in jail as well as a hefty fine.
Popov confirmed that his client turned himself in to police after he learned that a warrant was issued for his arrest. Popov said his client never expected the incident to become as intense as it did.