Preliminary hearings in the case of Semyon were held

In Russia controlled by the Railway District Court of Simferopol, preliminary hearings were held in the case of separatism, fabricated against journalist Nikolai Semena. This was announced on his Facebook page by journalist Anton Naumluk. He did not specify the surname of the judge considering the case.

Initially, the meeting was supposed to be held on February 17, and on the 28th it was already outlined by the consideration of the case on the merits. However, the 17th hearing was postponed , due to the fact that the lawyer of the journalist Emil Kurbedinov could not prepare for the process: at the end of January, duringa search in the office of the CPE lawyer, he seized all the documents both in the case of Semyon andfor all other cases . Computers with these lawyer were returned only in the morning of the 17th, immediately before the scheduled hearings.

Now the first meeting on the merits of the case is scheduled for March 20, beginning at 14 o’clock.

Although preliminary hearings in accordance with the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure are held closed, Crimean Tatar activists came to Semyon to the Semyon, including the first deputy chairman of the Mejlis Nariman Jelal.

The 66-year-old Semena threatens up to five years in colony under part 2 of article 280.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (public calls for separatism through the media). He is charged with the spelling of the blockade - the necessary first step towards the liberation of Crimea , published in Crimea. Realiy on September 11, 2015, announced a few days earlier than the civil blockade of the peninsula.

The text is signed by Valentin Gonchar, political scientist. Meanwhile, in the case there are screenshots of the Semyon computer screen, probably made in the process of writing an article. The journalist suspects that the FSB gained remote access to his computer and tracked his actions.

On April 19, 2016, Semyon was a search . Then the journalist was delivered for interrogation, after which they released on the recognizance not to leave. On April 29, Semen was charged. Rosfinmonitoring later included it in the list of terrorists and extremists.

The journalist does not plead guilty.

The investigation led the UFSB in annexed Crimea and Sevastopol. As far as is known, the prosecution is based solely on the conclusions of a linguistic examination, which announced the presence of public calls for extremism and separatism in the texts of Semyon. The defense, however, noted that in his conclusion, the expert-linguist went beyond his competence, and insisted on excluding the study from the case.

At the same time, a political science examination was attached to the case, conducted by order of lawyers by the former professor of the University of Kuban, Mikhail Savva, who fled from Russia two years ago and received a political ranger in Ukraine. Savva indicated that according to the Constitution of Russia, international norms have priority before national laws, and in a number of international legal documents signed by Moscow, Crimea is recognized as the territory of Ukraine. Thus, the political scientist concluded, the seeds, declaring Crimea Ukrainian, did not violate Russian laws.

On August 23, 2016, it became known that the Kyiv Institute of Neurosurgery. Romodanova called Semyon for treatment. Earlier, the journalist suffered a spinal injury, and doctors say that delay in treatment threatens him with disabilities. Andrei Sabinin, another journalist’s lawyer, sent to the investigator Alexander Parshutin, in the production of which was the case, a petition for permission to go to the continental Ukraine. Participants of a number of public organizations and international forums addressed similar calls to the Russian authorities. However, Parshutin refused , citing "the presence of specialized institutions for treatment in the territory of the Republic of Crimea."

On August 29, it was reported that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko awarded Semyon with the anniversary medal "25 years of independence of Ukraine."

In the fall, the Forum of the Civil Society of Eastern Partnership awarded Semen a prize to them. Pavel Sheremet .