Voronezh student's fine for wearing a skull mask at a rally was reduced

On February 9, the Voronezh Regional Court considered the complaint of a student of the Voronezh State Technical University against a fine for wearing a skull mask during a street action and decided to reduce the amount to five thousand rubles. This was reported by the Public Human Rights Reception Office, whose lawyer represents the interests of the girl.

On November 19, a student took part in a rally against the closure of the VSTU Faculty of Engineering and Economics. During the rally, she put on a mask with the image of a skull on her face, as a result, police officers accused her of violating the procedure for holding a public event (under the fifth part of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The Central District Court of Voronezh later found the girl guilty and fined her 10,000 rubles. At the same time, the student herself was not notified of the meeting, and the trial took place in her absence.

The defense demanded to completely cancel the accusatory decision and stop the proceedings, referring to the fact that the girl came to the rally with an open face, and she did not have a goal to hide her identity. In addition to the absence of malicious intent, the lawyer of the Public Human Rights Reception Ilya Sivoldaev also emphasized the disproportionate punishment, the insignificance of the offense, the absence of negative consequences, and the lack of income for his client. He also noted procedural violations during the consideration of the case in court and errors in the documents drawn up by the police, according to which the report on the offense was drawn up when the girl was still at the action.