Novaya Gazeta: The Crimean Supreme Court overturned the concurrent verdict against the opposition farmer

The Supreme Court of Crimea overturned the sentence of Euromaidan supporter farmer Vladimir Balukh, who in February 2016 was sentenced to 320 hours of correctional labor for insulting a police officer, reports . Novaya Gazeta

“The reason for the cancellation of the sentence is its literal coincidence with the indictment. There weren’t even the words “found guilty” there. Only “accused,” the publication quotes Balukh.

According to him, not only the defense, but also the prosecutor’s office asked to cancel the verdict. Now the case has been sent for a new trial to the Razdolnensky District Court of Crimea.

A criminal case against a farmer under Art. 319 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Insulting a representative of authority”) was initiated in November 2015. The indictment stated that on November 14, 2015, he insulted Yevgeny Baranov, detective officer of the Department of Internal Affairs for the Razdolnensky district, while he was conducting a search in his house: Balukh was suspected of stealing a VAZ-2106 car.

Balukh himself claimed that he really could have spoken obscenely at the detective, since the police officers who arrived at his house used physical force on him: they beat him in the kidneys, laid him on the ground, and put their feet on his head.

The security forces began pursuing Balukh in May 2015, when FSB officers discovered a flag of Ukraine hanging on his house in the village of Serebryanka, Razdolnensky district, which had been hanging since the winter of 2013 as a sign of solidarity with Euromaidan, Novaya Gazeta claims. According to the publication, it was after this that they unsuccessfully tried to accuse the man of stealing spare parts from a VAZ-2106.