In St. Petersburg, the fine for disobeying the police for a participant in the May Day demonstration was canceled

The St. Petersburg City Court overturned the fine for disobeying the police to Natalya Voznesenskaya, a participant in the May Day demonstration. This was reported on the “Public Verdict” foundation’s Facebook page with reference to Voznesenskaya’s defender Ernest Mezak.

The court decided to dismiss the case of a civil activist who was fined one thousand rubles by the Petrogradsky District Court under the article on disobedience to the demands of a police officer (Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). Judge Elena Shirokova did not find any crime in the actions of Voznesenskaya, who was detained on May 1.

In a complaint against the decision of the court of first instance, Mezak pointed out errors in the report drawn up by the police who detained Voznesenskaya. Mezak also drew the judge’s attention to the fact that the police were not present at the hearing, and the Petrograd court took over some of the functions of the prosecution, thereby violating the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (clause 1 of Article 6).

For the same action, the Petrograd City Court found Voznesenskaya guilty under Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the procedure for holding an event by a participant) and fined her 10 thousand rubles. The defense will seek to overturn this decision as well.

• Natalya Voznesenskaya and nine other members of the Solidarity-SPb group were detained during the May Day demonstration. As one of the detainees said, the police did not like the flags of foreign countries that the activists were carrying. Protocols were drawn up against the detainees under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences, as well as under parts 5 and Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
• All detainees were left overnight at the police station. The next day, demonstrator Maria Kozhevatova fell ill at the courthouse and was hospitalized .