In Smolensk, the court overturned the decision to acquit volunteers of Navalny’s headquarters

The Smolensk Regional Court overturned the ruling of the court of first instance, which acquitted the volunteers of the strike headquarters of Alexei Navalny, Sergei Komandirov and Sergei Kupriyanov. Their defender Alexey Lavrinenkov reported this to OVD-Info.

Considering the appeal of the prosecution, the court overturned the decision of the Leninsky District Court and sent the cases for a new trial.

The case of Sergei Komandirov was considered without a defense lawyer or the activist himself, having changed the time of the hearing and without notifying Lavrinenkov about this.

• The activists were detained on March 15 near the Griboyedov Theater while they were distributing leaflets with information about the “Voter Strike.” The department drew up protocols against them for holding a public event without filing a notification (Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code).

After the arrest, Alexey Lavrinenkov was not allowed into the department as a defense lawyer, explaining this as an “order from above.” Volunteers were left overnight in the department until the trial. On March 16, the Leninsky District Court of Smolensk closed the cases of Kupriyanov and Komandirov due to the lack of evidence of a crime. At the end of March, Sergei Komandirov was expelled from the 4th year of RANEPA.