Professor Savva was transferred under house arrest

Professor of the Kuban State University, director of grant programs of the Southern Regional Resource Center Mikhail Savve, the preventive measure was changed to house arrest. As Elena Savva’s wife told the “faces”, the decision to mitigate the preventive measure made the Presidium of the Krasnodar Regional Court on Wednesday, having examined the judicial materials on the complaint of the Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.

At the same time, the relatives of Savva were not notified of the meeting. “It's good that I returned home early, at about 19 o’clock. At 20:07 - a call to the intercom. And I hear my husband’s voice,” said Elena Savva.

By court decision, Professor Savve is not allowed to see his daughter Olga and grandson, who was born a month after his grandfather's arrest. Olga and the child had to urgently change their place of residence.

Due to the illness of Judge Vasily Makhov, the next meeting in the Savva case in the Pervomaisky district court was postponed indefinitely.

The professor spent almost 8 months in custody. On November 29, the Krasnodar court extended Savve the term of arrest until January 30 . "At the request of the investigation, the court renewed the guard for two months again. We consider this decision illegal and appeal it," said lawyer Marina Dubrovina. The term of detention of Savva expired on November 30, but the prosecution came out with a motion to extend the arrest.

Earlier on the same day, the Krasnodar Regional Court recognized the decision of the first instance on the previous extension of the term of detention.

The defense has repeatedly asked the court to change the preventive measure to a softer. Savva himself states that if he is released from custody, he does not intend to hide from justice, because he wants to "prove his innocence."

On November 8, the head of the Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov, sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with a request to change Savve a preventive measure . “Execution” can only be guilty, but there is no guilty, there is no crime event here. The members of the council who visited there, and those who carefully studied all the materials of the case, in my opinion, have already come to this conclusion. But of course, we are not going to provide any pressure on the court, ”Fedotov said at a press conference.

On November 5, in the Pervomaisky District Court of Krasnodar, the hearing of the Savva case began on the merits. He stated that the case was fully falsified by the regional department of the FSB. According to Savva, this falsification has three goals: pressure on civilian organizations as a whole, to reduce the level of their influence, personal revenge for the firmness of the civil position. In addition, Savva believes that this case makes it possible to keep him in custody to prepare a new case of state treason.

On April 12,Savva was detained after the searches that the FSB spent in his apartment and garage. A week before this, the social activist was removed from work in the Council for Human Rights under the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, where he was deputy chairman. On April 13, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar arrested Savva . On April 29, the regional court left him in custody. The publicist was charged with part 3 of Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code (fraud upon receipt of payments using his official position).

Later it became known that the second criminal case was opened against Savva. He allegedly received about 90 thousand rubles per course at the Kuban State University, which he did not read.

According to the FSB, Savva is guilty of the theft of budget money received by the public organization "Southern Regional Resource Center" as a grant. The center transferred 366 thousand rubles for a sociological study on the attitude of local residents to migrants. The security forces insist that in fact, the study was not conducted. However, work on the project "Building the World" was accepted by the customer.

After the arrest of Savva, a campaign for his support began. In the name of the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, deputy requests were sent. A public investigation is underway. To control the situation with Professor Savva was taken by the chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber on the safety of citizens' security, lawyer Anatoly Kucheren.

On July 2, the Memorial human rights center recognized Savva as a political prisoner . The Memorial considers accusations against him contradictory and unreasonable. The center demands to free Savva from custody and objectively investigate his business.

“There are several grounds to talk about the political motivation for the persecution of Professor Savva. The investigation and the court are clearly addicted. The FSB is engaged in the investigation of the case. In addition, Savva was arrested three days before his planned speech to members of the Presidential Council on the President, dedicated to the persecution of NPOs in the Krasnodar Territory,” the report said.

On October 23, the Human Rights Watch international human rights organization said that Savva’s arrest probably had a political background . He is kept under arrest with gross violations of Russian legislation, the HRW press release said. “The conclusion of a civil activist under the arrest before the court, while he began to express concern about NGO inspections, is an occasion to seriously think about the motives of his detention. The increased interest of the authorities in the alleged foreign ties of Savva also causes concern to the possible political motivation of the case,” said HRW director Hugh Williamson.