The Meshchansky court fined two participants in the protest against the blocking of Telegram

The Meshchansky District Court fined two participants in yesterday's action against the blocking of Telegram, Yulia Kostenko and Alina Muzychenko, under Part 1 of Article 20.2.2 of the Administrative Code (organizing a simultaneous mass presence of people in a public place, resulting in a violation of public order). Kostenko - 10 thousand rubles, Muzychenko - 20 thousand rubles. Mediazona reports this.

Kostenko admitted guilt and said that while walking through the city center, she saw people launching paper airplanes into the FSB building. They said that they were holding an action for freedom on the Internet - and she decided to take part in it too, not thinking that this would entail any sanctions. In court, Kostenko assured the judge that she would no longer violate the law on public events.

In addition to Kostenko, the court examined materials regarding Alina Muzychenko. She also admitted guilt. According to her, she learned about the action from social networks.

Open Russia lawyer Alexander Efimov, who defended both girls, believes that the paper airplane rally did not violate public order and did not disturb passers-by. The fact that passers-by made comments to the participants is not confirmed by anything:

I would also like to draw attention to the statement that citizens made comments as they passed by. Who made the comments? Persons must be questioned whether they were interfered with or not. To assume that these 12 people could have prevented someone from passing in a fairly wide area is a fiction. I understand that it is very scary when a group of young people launch airplanes, but there was no public danger.

Of the 12 people detained yesterday at Lubyanka, only Kostenko and Muzychenko were brought to court. The rest - Yulia Sukova, Alexander Sofeev, Heinrich Von Desteo, Stepan Vyboch, Dmitry Tsorionov, former Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, Alisa Gordeeva, Egor Ermeev, Olga Savchenko and Open Russia employee Sonya Trofimova remain at the Meshchansky police department until tomorrow morning.

UPD On April 18, Alina Muzychenko did not admit guilt, but admitted that she launched paper airplanes. She plans to file a complaint with the ECHR.

• Yesterday, at first they did not allow a lawyer to see the detainees, and then they did not allow them to inform their relatives about their detention, they took away their personal belongings and placed them in cells overnight. They were given rations only today at 12 noon.
• On Friday, April 13, the Tagansky Court of Moscow satisfied the claim of Roskomnadzor and made a decision to block the Telegram messenger in Russia.