Translated material
European court for kissing and tea drinking
Hello! Good news has been coming from Strasbourg for the third week in a row: it seems that the European Court of Human Rights has taken the problem of freedom of assembly in Russia seriously. Complaints from detainees at gatherings on the day of the verdict in the “Bolotnaya case” on February 24, 2014 in Moscow and St. Petersburg, on the protests of kissing LGBT activists near the Duma in connection with the adoption of the law on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” on June 11, 2013, as well as during a tea party at a school in Novorossiysk as part of a meeting of human rights activists with a colleague from Germany in 2007. If the outcome is positive, all of these detainees can expect compensation from the Russian government. Well, the Russian authorities are still ready to pay compensation according to the decisions of the ECHR - read the opinion of Alexander Litoy.
And far from happy news from the Karelian colony, where Ildar Dadin, the only one in Russia convicted under the article on “repeated violations at public events,” is imprisoned. As his wife Anastasia Zotova learned, he was sent to a punishment cell three times after arriving in the colony, and then transferred to strict conditions of detention .
No freedom of assembly
In other regions of Russia, people who are dissatisfied with something continue to be detained at rallies, be it the construction of a stadium or a temple, or the situation in the country in general. It is not political events that suffer either: for example, in Omsk, in response to a complaint from Orthodox activists, the production of the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” wascanceled . Moscow animal rights activists who demanded an inspection of the animal shelter were not detained, but the police drove their cars away from the entrance to the shelter. At a Raiffeisen Bank event, a foreign currency borrower was detained who began telling participants about the bank's policies.
Two residents of Beslan, detained for displaying T-shirts with accusations against Putin during a memorial service for those killed in 2004, had their mandatory labor sentences replaced with fines .
Criminal prosecutions
Russian authorities refused to extradite film director Oleg Sentsov and anti-fascist Alexander Kolchenko to Ukraine. Official responses from the Ministry of Justice state that Sentsov and Kolchenko acquired Russian citizenship. In addition, Sentsov was transferred to a punishment cell .
Dmitry Demushkin, co-chairman of the Russian Ethnopolitical Association, recognized as extremist, accused of inciting hatred for publishing a poster from the Russian March on social networks, was placed under house arrest for two months. This happened on the day he submitted an application for the next “Russian March”.
Kuban activist Daria Polyudova was denied consideration of her appeal against the verdict - she was sent to a penal colony for posts that were seen as calls for extremism and separatism.
In the Volgograd pre-trial detention center, local human rights activist Igor Nagavkin is on a hunger strike . He is accused of stealing jewelry. He believes that the persecution is connected with attempts to expose local security forces, who, in his opinion, are connected with the drug mafia.
Seven people were detained in Tatarstan, suspected of organizing a cell of the Tablighi Jamaat movement, which was groundlessly recognized as extremist.
But imprisonment ends someday, sometimes even on parole. Aleksey Polikhovich, convicted in the Bolotnaya case, remembers the colony, the decision on parole - and potatoes.
What awaits us (23.10 – 29.10)
On October 24, Dagestan is due to sentence local imam Magomednabi Magomedov , who is accused of calling for terrorism and inciting hatred for a sermon in which he spoke about the need to peacefully defend one’s rights. The prosecutor asked to send Magomedov to a colony for five years.
In addition, appeals in several political cases are expected to be heard next week. October 25 - on the verdict of the artist Pyotr Pavlensky , who was fined for an action during which he set fire to the door of the FSB building on Lubyanka. October 26 - on the decision to fine oppositionist Leonid Volkov for “obstructing the professional activities” of a LifeNews journalist and on the sentencing of Ukrainians Nikolai Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh , accused of killing Russian military personnel in Chechnya in the 1990s (they were sentenced to 22 and 20 years in a penal colony regime, respectively; Klykh is currently on trial for insulting the prosecutor during one of the hearings on the “Ukrainian-Chechen case”). October 27 - on the decision to send Andrei Kolomiets , accused of an attempt on the life of two Berkut fighters during the Kiev Maidan, to ten years in a maximum security colony.
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