The regional court approved the decision to terminate proceedings in the case of Navalny's supporter

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court approved the decision of the Leninsky Court of Yekaterinburg to terminate administrative proceedings under Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (repeated violation of the law on rallies) against local activist Rafail Shepelev. Elena Shukaeva reported this to OVD-Info.

The hearing in the regional court took place on April 24. The police officers filed an appeal against the decision of the Leninsky Court. Shepelev’s defenders Anatoly Svechnikov and Irina Ruchko were able to familiarize themselves with the text of the appeal only in the courtroom - they were never sent copies.

On March 16, police officers detained Elena Shukaeva, Rafail Shepelev and Elena Pariy for a picket in support of Sergei Tiunov, who was arrested for a poster criticizing Putin. Shepelev, according to his lawyer, did not participate in the picket, but only filmed what was happening. The man was kept in the police department overnight, having changed part 5 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules for holding a public event by a participant) to part 8 (repeated violation) of the same article.

However, the judge sided with the activist - on March 17, the case was closed for lack of evidence of an offense. The meeting lasted almost the entire day - from 11 am to approximately 7 pm. “The judge uttered a unique phrase: there is no reason to doubt the testimony of witness Shukaeva,” Svechnikov commented on the course of the hearing. Shukaeva was a witness for the defense.