The court in Khakassia dismissed the case for a Facebook post criticizing the head of the republic

The Abakan city court dismissed the case of disrespect for the authorities (part 3 of article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) against a local resident Vyacheslav Shoev due to a publication with a negative assessment of the head of Khakassia, Valentin Konovalov. This is reported by Novaya Gazeta.

The next hearing in the case was to be held on July 5, but the court decided to consider the case earlier.

“This is such a good surprise, they decided to convene an emergency hearing and the court dismissed [the case] due to the absence of an event of an offense,” Novaya Gazeta quoted Vladimir Vasin, a lawyer for the Agora human rights group, as saying.

The report on Shoev was drawn up because of a post on Facebook. His page was viewed by an employee of the "E" center, allegedly after the police "received a signal" from the administration of the head of the region. Konovalov himself stated that he did not know about the administrative case against Shoev and did not file an application against him.

• In March, Vladimir Putin signed into law a law punishing disrespect for the authorities. For the first offense under this law, a fine of 30 to 100 thousand rubles is provided.
• According to the head of Agora, Pavel Chikov, ten administrative cases are now known under the article on disrespect for the authorities.