In Tula, the court fined supporters of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation due to detention at a non-existent event

The Central District Court of Tula fined supporters of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Svetlana Belous, Mikhail Fedorov, Alexei Lebedev and Yuri Koretsky because of their detention on the night of August 9 near the building of the Government of the Tula Region. The politicians were found guilty under the article on violation of the rules for participation in public events (Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). This was reported to OVD-Info by Alexey Vlasov, the author of the Black Cloak telegram channel.

The materials of Lebedev's administrative case [ Available at OVD-Info ] indicate that on August 9, he “live on the VKontakte social network from the user page under the nickname ‘Aleksey Lebedev’ participated in a collective discussion of socially significant issues: problems of housing and communal services, garbage reform, election campaign. The case also does not specify what actions Lebedev committed in violation of the Federal Law “On meetings, rallies, demonstrations, processions and picketing”.

However, Lebedev and other detainees deny that they participated in any event that day. The report compiled by Lieutenant Colonel Kozhurin, who gave the order to detain the politicians, recorded that on August 9 the policeman himself arrived at the local government building, next to which Koretskikh, who was on a hunger strike, and five other people “actively discussing socially important issues” were located. “Thus, these actions fell under the holding of a public event,” Kozhurin concluded in the report.

Lebedev's defense believes that Lieutenant Colonel Kozhurin acted as the actual organizer of the action, since information that any event took place at all is contained only in the report of the policeman, and the beginning of the action, reflected in the report, coincides with the time of Kozhurin's arrival at the government building.

The policemen, who were at the government house that night and had the right to draw up a protocol against the politicians, said in court that they did not see any signs of administrative offenses in the actions of the Communist Party supporters until the moment when Kozhurin ordered the detention.

Despite the arguments of the defense that no public event actually took place on the night of August 9, the court fined under Part 5 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses Belous for 15 thousand rubles, Koretsky for 20 thousand rubles, and under Part 8 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses - Fedorov for 150 thousand rubles, Lebedev for 200 thousand rubles.

• On the night of August 9, four candidates for the Tula Regional Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were detained in Tula near the building of the Government of the Tula Region: acting deputy Alexei Lebedev, editor-in-chief of Tulskaya Pravda Mikhail Fedorov, Svetlana Belous, and animal rights activist Yuri Koretsky. Fedorov, Belous and Lebedev were walking past the government building, when suddenly people stood next to them, whom the candidates for deputies regarded as provocateurs. Koretskikh went on a hunger strike there. According to Aleksey Lebedev, as soon as provocateurs appeared next to them, police officers immediately ran up and said that the candidates were holding a public event, which is prohibited at night.