"Memorial" recognized as political prisoners the heads of the Far Eastern Trade Union

The Memorial human rights center recognized as political prisoners the head of the union of the Docks of Vostochny Port in the find of Leonid Tikhonov and the chief accountant of the trade union Natalya Bondareva. This is stated in the statement published on the organization’s website.

On December 15, 2014, the Nakhodkinsky city court found Tikhonov and Bondarev guilty of assigning 369 thousand rubles allocated by the East Port OJSC to the trade union company for the acquisition of New Year's gifts for his employees and the organization of recreation. The court sentenced Tikhonov under part 3 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code (assignment or embezzlement using his official position, as well as large -scale) by three years and a half years in prison in a general regime colony with a ban on trade union activities for three years. The court sentenced Bondarev by the year two months in prison in a general regime colony.

"The chronology and circumstances of the criminal prosecution of Tikhonov and Bondareva allow us to conclude that Leonid Tikhonov and the trade union he headed by him," the memorial noted by him, says.

The case was opened at the request of the managing director of OJSC East Port Anatoly Lazarev. (RPD). Neither in the course of the investigation, nor in court, nor the primary trade union organization, nor the Russian trade union of dockers recognized themselves as victims of the defendants. The independent revision commission of the RPD conducted a check of Tikhonov’s actions and did not reveal an inappropriate study of funds. When making a sentence, the court rejected the testimony of all defense witnesses. In addition, other trade union activists of the East Port were persecuted.

The Memorial believes that the criminal prosecution of Tikhonov and Bondareva looks like part of the campaign to defeat the independent trade union organization of the Eastern Port, initiated by the administration of the enterprise.

The persecution of Tikhonov began after a series of successful shares of the Trade Union to protect the rights of port workers. On June 22, 2013, the police carried out searches and the seizure of financial documents in the office of the trade union and the personal apartment of Tikhon. In August 2013, a rally of joints of docks with the leader of the Vostochny port trade union was held in several Russian ports.