The court refused to overturn the acquittal of participants in the “He is not our king” protest

The Chelyabinsk Regional Court refused to cancel the acquittal of Oksana Eremina and Yury Vashurin, participants in the 2018 “He is not our Tsar” action. This is reported by the "Apology of Protest" with reference to the lawyer Andrey Lepekhin.

In January, the court of first instance acquitted Eremina and Vashurin, recognizing their right to rehabilitation. They were accused of hooliganism by prior agreement and for political reasons (part 2 of article 213 of the Criminal Code). The investigation requested for both defendants 3 years and 6 months in prison.

The verdict was appealed by the prosecutor's office. In the appeal submission, the state prosecutor called the verdict “unfair” and indicated that the court “did not evaluate the testimony” of witnesses, “whose arguments testify to the call of Vashurin and Yeremina to mass violation of public order.” The court of second instance upheld the acquittal.

• According to the text of the accusation, when Yuri Vashurin arrived at the place of the action at the appointed time on May 5, 2018, he “had a criminal intent to commit hooliganism.” Namely, when he saw Oksana Eremina ignoring the police officers “gripping together at the elbows, thereby creating a living cordon” and starting “active movement forward”, Vashurin and “persons unidentified during the preliminary investigation” grappled with each other in the elbows, forming a chain . Thus, the participants of the action were able to cross the intersection of Sverdlovsky Prospekt and Lenin Prospekt and, accordingly, reach the end point of the procession. All this was done "boldly, cynically, wanting to resist the police."
• Participants of the action "He is not our tsar" opposed the new presidential term of Vladimir Putin. The all-Russian protest was initiated by opposition politician Alexei Navalny. According to OVD-Info, on May 5, 2018, at least 185 people were detained in Chelyabinsk, and at least 1,600 across Russia.