News digest for August 6

Release from pre-trial detention center of a rally participant in Magas, verdicts in a “sanitary case” and recognition by the Kirov court of the right to protest. Read about the main news for August 6.

• The defendants in the “sanitary case” were sentenced: oppositionist Nikolai Lyaskin was sentenced to a year of restricted freedom, and Oleg Navalny was given a year of suspended imprisonment. The court found both guilty of inciting violations of sanitary and epidemiological rules due to the action on January 23 in support of Alexei Navalny. Lyaskin’s interests were defended by OVD-Info lawyer Sergei Telnov.
• The defendant in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, Asgat Khafizov, sentenced to 19 years in prison, was sentenced to another 16 years in prison in a new case about a terrorist organization. The Muslim has been held in custody since 2014.
• In Simferopol, the court ordered a ban on certain actions of blogger Ludvika Papadopoulou. She is accused of libel due to someone else's post about the raider takeover of the sanatorium.
• In Cherepovets, an unknown person attacked human rights activist Grigory Winter. The man said he did this because of Winter's complaint against the bailiff.
• Blogger Yuri Khovansky's detention was extended until September. He is charged with justifying terrorism for his remarks about the hostage-taking during the Nord-Ost musical, which took place in Moscow in 2002.
• In the Rostov region, the guards of four Jehovah's Witnesses were extended : Alexei Gorely, Nikita Moiseev, Oleg Shidlovsky and Evgeniy Razumov. Believers have been held in pre-trial detention for almost a year in connection with an extremist organization case.
• The Kirov Regional Court declared illegal the refusal of the mayor's office to coordinate rallies in support of political prisoners and in honor of the Day of Remembrance of Solovki prisoners. The previous court ordered officials not to interfere with the protests.
• Magomed Khamkhoev, a defendant in the “Ingush case,”was released . In February, the court found him guilty of inciting violence against law enforcement officers during a rally in Magas on March 26, 2019, and sentenced him to three and a half years in prison.