The court in Khabarovsk dismissed another case against a journalist caught in the “carousel of detentions”

The Industrial District Court of Khabarovsk dismissed another case against Prosto Gazeta journalist Tatyana Khlestunova, who covered protests in the region. She talked about this on her YouTube channel.

Khlestunova’s interests were represented by lawyers Andrei Bityutsky and Andrei Demidov, who collaborate with OVD-Info.

At a hearing on February 16, the court re-examined the case materials under the article on participation in an action that interfered with infrastructure (Part 6.1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences) due to the November 28 march in support of the former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergei Furgal. Initially, the court arrested the journalist for 4 days. In court, Khlestunova presented an editorial assignment and stated that she did not participate in the action, but recorded events as a correspondent for Prosto Gazeta.

The Khabarovsk Regional Court, on appeal, overturned the ruling imposing 4 days and sent the case back to the district court for review. Production on these materials was eventually stopped on February 16th.

In December 2020, the court also terminated the proceedings in the case of imposing 10 days of arrest on Khlestunova - the court appointed them when the journalist ended up in a “carousel of detentions”: after serving 4 days of arrest, she was detained at the exit from the special detention center.

• Since July 11, 2020, in the Khabarovsk Territory and other regions of the country, rallies have been held in support of the arrested ex-governor Sergei Furgal. Until approximately July 18, the Khabarovsk police made almost no attempt to interfere with the protesters, but later law enforcement officers began to detain the protesters. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they were detained after the protests, including on other days, right at home or at work, after which they were taken to police departments and courts, where they were fined or arrested. After the dispersal of the rally on October 10 in Khabarovsk, criminal cases were opened against several people: three under the article on the use of violence against a government official (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code) and one under the “Dada” article on repeated violations of the procedure for holding public events (Article 212.1 UK).
• On July 9, the then-current governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, was detained by FSB officers on suspicion of involvement in a number of contract killings. He was taken to Moscow, where he was placed in custody. On July 20, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Furgal’s resignation from the post of governor and appointed Furgal’s LDPR party member Mikhail Degtyarev to this post as acting. In November, Furgal’s arrest was extended until March 2021, the meeting was held behind closed doors.