Open Russia Coordinator Vernikov was fined under an article on "unwanted" organizations

The peace judge of the site No. 8 of the October judicial district of Yekaterinburg Olga Stepanova fined five thousand rubles on charges of participating in the “unwanted” organization of the coordinator of Open Russia in the Sverdlovsk region Maxim Vernikov. This was written on Facebook by the defender Vernikova, a lawyer of Open Law, Julia Fedotova.

Vernikov was declared guilty under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (carrying out activities in Russia "undesirable" organization). He was assigned a minimum possible fine under this article.

The protocol for the activist was drawn up on December 11 last year in the prosecutor's office of the Oktyabrsky district, where he was called to give an explanation. As it turned out in court, the department opened an administrative case on the denunciation of the economic security management of the Sverdlovsk headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The screenshots of media reports on the constituent conference of the Sverdlovsk regulation of Open Russia, which took place on November 11, 2017, appeared as evidence in the case file.

At Fedotov’s hearing, she insisted that Vernikov participated in the activities of the not prohibited British structure of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but of the Russian movement of the same name. “We are already tired of repeating that we have nothing to do with the“ OR ”, registered in the UK (to both). We do not even have the names if you open your eyes and read carefully,” the lawyer emphasizes.

Fedotova is going to file an appeal against a decision on a fine.

As the Coordinator of Open Russia in Chuvashia Dmitry Semenov notes , in the near future, two vessels will be held in the republic in similar cases: on Monday, the City Court of Tsivilsk will consider the case of a member of the open Russian regional council Anton Kravchenko, and on February 2, a hearing in the case of Semenov himself will be held in the same court.

On April 26, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced the “open Russia” “unwanted” organization . Also “unwanted” was the other structure of Mikhail Khodorkovsky - the public network movement “Open Russia”. Both of them are registered in the UK. Although both organizations are not related to the Russian movement of the same name, its activists throughout the country are constantly pursued under the article of the Code of Administrative Offenses of "undesirable" organizations.