In Pskov, the court dismissed an administrative case against a journalist for a single picket

Judge of the Pskov Regional Court Galina Malygina, in an appeal, dismissed the administrative case of journalist Vladimir Kapustinsky, who was given a warning due to a single picket in support of journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva. 7×7 magazine writes about this.

The case against Kapustinsky was opened under an article on violation of the rules of conduct during the high alert regime introduced (Part 1 of Article 20.6.1 of the Administrative Code) due to a single picket that the journalist held on July 4.

The police and the court of first instance decided that single pickets were prohibited by decree of the governor of the Pskov region due to the coronavirus. Judge Malygina did not agree with them.

“Our position was that the governor’s decree only prohibited the holding of public cultural, sports and other mass events, to which single picketing does not apply. As a result, the regional court agreed with our arguments and dismissed the case. I don’t know why the court of first instance didn’t do this earlier,” 7x7 quotes the words of Apology of Protest lawyer Tatyana Martynova, who defended the journalist.

• In Pskov on July 4, police detained Pskov Province journalist Vladimir Kapustinsky and the publication’s editor-in-chief Denis Kamalyagin, who were standing in single pickets in support of journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva.
• Radio Liberty journalist and former editor-in-chief of Pskov Province Svetlana Prokopyeva was found guilty under the article on justifying terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) because of the material about the explosion in the building of the Arkhangelsk FSB in 2018. She was given a fine of 500 thousand rubles.
• On the morning of October 31, 2018, in the FSB building in Arkhangelsk, 17-year-old local resident Mikhail Zhlobitsky detonated a bomb. Three employees were injured, the young man himself died. A few minutes before the explosion, a message about the attack appeared in the telegram open chat of “Rebel Rebel”. A criminal case of terrorism was opened following the explosion.