In Yakutsk, the organizer of a rally against pension reform was detained and tried

In Yakutsk, police detained Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the organizer of a rally against pension reform and coordinator of the regional headquarters of Alexei Navalny. The activist told OVD-Info about this.

Police officers invited him to meet to read a "paper on preventing extremism" during the protests. According to Nogovitsyn, this is a common practice and happens before every public event he organizes.

“He [the policeman] called me, as usual: “Let's meet at a convenient place for you.” I go to meet them so that they do not come to my house at night or early in the morning, ”said Nogovitsyn.

Before the previous protests, the activist was also introduced to the same document, this moment was recorded on a video camera and released. This time Nogovitsyn was detained.

According to Nogovitsyn, he was charged with part 8 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (Repeated violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding an event). He was taken into custody for two hours at the police station.

“Then there was a trial. The judge, as he saw the protocol, his face even changed. A smile slipped, and he asked again about the protocol drawn up, whether the policemen understood the essence of the protocol they had drawn up. And he asked what punishment they would like to apply to me. The police replied that it was necessary to detain him for 30 days,” Nogovitsyn said.

The judge decided to dismiss the case for lack of corpus delicti.

• The Russian authorities have prepared a pension reform that assumes that men will retire at 65 and women at 60. On September 9, protests against pension reform will be held in many Russian cities. They are organized by supporters of Alexei Navalny.
• The administration of Yakutsk refused to agree on a rally and march of opponents of the reform. The deputy head of the city referred to the fact that the organizers did not indicate the time and day of the action. Although it follows from the notification posted by Nogovitsyn that the applicants for the action indicated both the date and time of its holding.
• In May 2018, Nogovitsyn was detained for participating in the action “He is not our king.” Then the activist was fined 30 thousand rubles.