A city council deputy in Dagestan was fined 30 thousand rubles for a meeting with the population

On December 15, the Supreme Court of Dagestan upheld the verdict of the Buynaksk city court, which fined the former head of the Buynaksk city assembly, Zaur Shakhverdiev, 30,000 rubles on charges of organizing an uncoordinated rally on October 16, the regional online newspaper Chernovik reports.

According to the publication, the court of second instance ignored the arguments of Zaur Gasanbekov, Shakhverdiyev's lawyer, who emphasized in court that the protocol on an administrative offense was drawn up with violations. According to Gasanbekov, his client was taken to the police department on October 21, a week after the event, and from there they were taken to court, where half an hour before the meeting an administrative protocol was drawn up under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, and bailiffs acted as witnesses. Thus, Shakhverdiev was actually deprived of the right to defense, Gasanbekov emphasized. The lawyer also stated that no evidence was presented in court that Shakhverdiyev was indeed the organizer of the event.

According to Gasanbekov, there was no rally on October 16, and city deputies were going to hold a meeting with the population , and the relevant notifications were handed over to the police and the city administration, and information about the event was published on the city council website.

The day before the event, representatives of the administration of the head and the government of Dagestan arrived in Buynaksk and demanded that the city deputies cancel the rally. “They demanded that we not hold a rally. We explained to them that we were not planning a rally. There are a dozen applications from residents of the city of Buynaksk. They ask to meet. They have a lot of questions about heating, about the lack of water. This is just a meeting where the townspeople would like to voice their problems, ”Shakhverdiyev later said. The next day, the meeting with the deputies was forcibly stopped by police officers who pushed the speakers off the platform and pushed the listeners back. According to Chernovik, two people were injured in the fall. At least seven people were detained.