The organizer of a rally against corruption in Chelyabinsk filed a complaint with the ECHR

In Chelyabinsk, activist Aleksey Tabalov complained to the European Court of Human Rights about the violation of his rights in connection with his detention and ten-day arrest for organizing a rally against corruption in the city on March 26. This was reported by the International Human Rights Group "Agora" with reference to the lawyer Andrey Lepekhin.

According to Tabalov, the Russian authorities violated the provisions of four articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. These are Article 5 (right to liberty and security of person), Article 6 (right to a fair trial), Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association).

“The Russian authorities did not provide any reasonable evidence that the public event that took place was not peaceful and its participants committed any illegal actions, as well as that the holding of the action caused any inconvenience to other persons,” said lawyer Andrey Lepekhin.

In March 2017, Aleksey Tabalov filed a notification with the mayor's office about holding a rally against corruption in Chelyabinsk on March 26. The authorities denied the activist permission to hold the rally at the place specified in the application, without offering alternative options. According to the position of the Constitutional Court of Russia, in this case, the event is considered agreed.

Nevertheless, on March 31, a protocol was drawn up against Tabalov under Part 1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation by the organizer of a public event of the procedure for holding it). According to the police, the activist was the organizer of the March 26 anti-corruption rally. Tabalov's violation of the law was allegedly expressed in the fact that he "stood on the podium and shouted anti-government slogans" and even "constantly smiled and was pleased with the campaign actions he had carried out."

However, on April 7, the court found violations in the protocol on an administrative offense and returned it to the police. Then the police drew up a new protocol right in the hallway of the court. Part 1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses was replaced with part 3 of the same article (organization of a public event that caused interference with the functioning of life support facilities). The protocol says that an organized march of 3,000 people on March 26 interfered with transport, the planned cleaning of the pedestrian zone with special cleaning equipment, and allegedly, in addition, the operation of a jewelry salon, a souvenir shop and several individual entrepreneurs was violated.

On April 10, 2017, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk found Tabalov guilty of committing this administrative offense.