In St. Petersburg, an activist was arrested for nine days due to a protest with Putin’s tombstone

The Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested civil activist Andrei Zheksimbaev for nine days because of the action with Putin’s tombstone. Human rights activist Dinar Idrisov reported this to OVD-Info.

Zheksimbaev was found guilty of holding a public event without filing a notification (Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). The press service of the St. Petersburg courts states that the activist installed a tombstone installation with a photograph of the president and the inscription “PUTIN V.V. 1952–2019 BETRAYED THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA.” According to the Assistance Group for Detainees in St. Petersburg, Zheksimbaev himself claims that he did not leave the house at all for a week.

According to Idrisov, after the meeting, the judge threatened defense attorney Alexander Mironov with initiating a criminal case under Article 297 of the Criminal Code (contempt of court) because he called what was happening a circus.

The activist was detained on April 4 along with the press secretary of the AgitRussia movement Grigory Kudryavtsev. Kudryavtsev was also charged with Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code. Idrisov expects the court to consider his administrative case on April 6.

After Andrei Zheksimbaev was detained, a report was also drawn up under Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules of holding an event) due to the distribution of leaflets for an “unlimited protest” at the end of December 2018. The police decided that in this way the activists held an uncoordinated collective picket.

20:59 The hearing on the case of Grigory Kudryavtsev took place today, the court also arrested him for nine days. The activist was left without a lawyer, since right before the meeting, Alexander Mironovwas detained at police department No. 1.

• In March, activists of the “perpetual protest” in Naberezhnye Chelny erected a tombstone of Vladimir Putin near the regional department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Later, one of the authors of the action was arrested for 28 days under the article on repeated violation of the rules for violating the event (Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code).