The court in St. Petersburg terminated the administrative case against the detainee on the action on August 10, 2019

The judge of the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg Alevtina Kuznetsova terminated the administrative case under the article on violation of the rules of participation in a public event (part 5 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) against the detained during single pickets on August 10, 2019, Yana Mkrtchyan. This was reported by a lawyer from the ATS-Info Anna Fomina, who represented the interests of Mkrtchyan in court.

The case was terminated due to the lack of an offense. The defense convinced the court that Mkrtchyan was simply present at the place of pickets, but did not participate in them.

“She (Yana Mkrtchyan- OTD-Info ) came to support the picketers and see which posters the Picketers are at the Gostiny Dvor. Since many people gathered there, there were the forces of the Russian Guard, Omone, and the police ... At some point, she found himself in the rifle ring of riot police, who were in full laying out: in body armor, helmets and so on. Everyone who ended up in this ring was put in a car zak and taken to the department, ”Fomina told about the circumstances of the detention of her client.

The Vyborg Court several times returned the materials of the Mkrtchyan case to the police department to correct inaccuracies and shortcomings. However, at the end of 2019, the court nevertheless found her guilty and fined it. At the same time, the meeting was held in the absence of Mkrtchian.

In 2020, the detainee against the shares on August 10 filed a complaint against the court order, and the St. Petersburg City Court returned the case for a new trial to the court of first instance.

The same judge of the Vyborg district court considered the case already in the presence of Mkrtchyan and its defender. The court then refused to call the police for interrogation and the prosecutor to maintain the prosecution, but agreed to view the video recordings of events on August 10, which the police attached to the case file.

As Fomina said, in the video her client hit only a couple of times, and at these moments she did not stand with a poster and did not shout out slogans, as the police wrote in the protocol and reports.

The court postponed the decision and already today, on July 9 announced the decision: to terminate the proceedings in connection with the lack of the composition of the offense.

• In more than 40 cities of Russia on August 10, shares were held for honest elections and against political repression. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Bryansk and Syktyvkar, police detained 352 people.