A Voronezh resident was fined 270 thousand rubles for a comment about the judge who sentenced Konstantin Kotov

The Mashchansky District Court of Moscow found Voronezh resident Mikhail Kvasov guilty of threatening a judge (Part 1 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code), who sentenced Konstantin Kotov to 4 years in prison. This was reported by OVD-Info lawyer Olga Pelshe, who represented Kvasov in court.

Mikhail Kvasov was fined 270 thousand rubles; the prosecutor asked to fine him 300 thousand rubles. Kvasov himself did not admit his guilt. The court took into account the expert opinion from the prosecution, but not from the defense.

The victim was recognized as Judge Stanislav Minin, who, according to the prosecution, was threatened by Kvasov. During his testimony, which he gave behind closed doors, Minin said that he regarded Kvasov’s comment as a real threat to himself and still felt in danger. The court came to the conclusion that Kvasov could actually carry out the action mentioned in the commentary

The defense emphasized that Judge Minin was not mentioned in Mikhail Kvasov’s commentary. In addition, the judge is not registered on social networks and learned about the comment only from the press service of the Moscow City Court. It is unclear why Judge Minin felt threatened by Kvasov’s words.

“What did Mikhail Kvasov actually mean? What intentions did he have? The investigation should have paid attention to this, but I did not notice any desire on the part of the prosecution to find out this side of the act that it is investigating. Not once was Kvasov asked what his intentions were when leaving a comment. <...> All people who leave comments about him, including negative ones, are not a threat to his [Judge Minin - OVD-Info ] life and duties,” Mediazona quoted the lawyer as saying during a debate at one of the meetings

• An Instagram user under the pseudonym “Chimera of All Rus'” published a photo of Judge Minin with the caption “Meet Judge Minin, he was the one who sentenced Kotov to four years in prison.” According to the prosecution, Mikhail Kvasov commented on the post, and Judge Minin considered the comment a threat to his life.
• In December, Mikhail Kvasov was given a written undertaking not to leave the territory of the Voronezh region. He was detained on December 10 and taken to Moscow.
• Judge Stanislav Minin of the Tverskoy District Court sentenced Kotov to four years in a general regime colony on September 5. His case was essentially considered in two days. Two days after the arrest, on August 12, investigators announced the end of the investigation.