Participants of feminist pickets in Stavropol complained to the ECHR

Anastasia Antonets, Kirill Bobro, Tatiana Glinberg, Artem Sagaydakov and Roman Fatulaev, who were fined for taking part in a feminist rally in December 2016, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights. This is reported by RBC with reference to the lawyer of the International Human Rights Group "Agora" Ilnur Sharapov.

According to the applicants, the Russian State violated Art. 10 (right to freedom of expression), Art. 11 (right to freedom of assembly) and Art. 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention for the Protection of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms.

In December, the authorities of Stavropol refused to allow local activists and activists to agree on a rally in defense of women's rights, citing the fact that preparations for the New Year holidays would be taking place at the declared venue. Then the applicants decided to hold the action in the format of a series of single pickets. This format does not require approval from the authorities. However, on December 18, when the activists went out with pickets to Lenin Square, they were detained by the police 10 minutes later. After four hours of interrogation by the police, they were released without any protocol being drawn up.

Antonets posted a report on the event on her page on the VKontakte social network, which attracted the attention of employees of the Center for Combating Extremism. They considered that “there were signs of an administrative offense in the applicants' actions, since their picket had not been coordinated with the local authorities”. Administrative proceedings were opened against the activists under Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the procedure for holding a public event).

On December 30, 2016, the court fined Antonets twenty thousand rubles under Part 2 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, considering her the organizer of the action. Bobro, Fatulaev, Glinberg and Sagaydakov were fined ten thousand rubles under Part 5 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the procedure for holding a public event). Later, Sagadaikov's fine was changed to thirty hours of compulsory work.

On June 13, the Leninsky District Court of Stavropol sentenced Kirill Bobro to one year and six months in prison in a penal colony under Part 2 of Art. 228 (drug possession). The institution of a criminal case against Bobro became known on March 16, after a search was conducted in his apartment and allegedly found marijuana and heroin.

The search was carried out by employees of the Center for Combating Extremism, and before it began, according to lawyer Vitaly Zubenko, “they stood at the door for an hour, during which time a person who has something forbidden could safely get rid of it. But when he opened the door, the security forces soon found drugs in his jacket in the hallway, and another bag behind a closet on the balcony. And it was the only piece of furniture that the operatives moved.”

In addition, although in addition to Bobro, his mother and wife live in the apartment, only he was accused of drug possession, and a video of the search was confiscated from the activist’s mother. The charge was brought immediately after a superficial study of the seized, there was no examination as such, according to the lawyer, at that time.