The human rights activist was fined because of the text of the appeal and was charged with contempt of court

On July 28, the Belgorod Regional Court fined lawyer Yevgeny Sokolov 5,000 rubles for contempt of court, which the defender allegedly showed in an appeal (according to the norm of part 2 of article 122 of the CAS). Sokolov himself told about this OVD-Info.

In the fall of 2021, Sokolov was denied permission to hold a rally in support of political prisoners, but in December of the same year, a large Christmas tree was held in the city. After that, the human rights activist turned to the mayor's office to find out how the decision to hold the Christmas tree was made.

Later, Sokolov decided to appeal against the answer of the mayor's office that did not satisfy him - on June 16, the Sverdlovsky District Court of Belgorod considered the appeal, which upheld the decision of the officials.

Two weeks later, the human rights activist received a notice of a meeting where the issue of imposing a court fine for contempt of court on his part will be considered.

At a meeting in the Belgorod Regional Court on July 28, it turned out that the reason for the persecution of Sokolov was quotes from the appeal, in which the human rights activist criticized the work of the judicial system in Russia. Judge Elena Kolmykova found Sokolov's statements offensive.

• Sokolov regularly defends Belgorod activists. He has an internship with local activist Ilya Kostyukov, who was subjected to pressure from the university after being detained at a picket in defense of trolleybuses.
• Since the spring of 2020, restrictions on mass events due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been used by the authorities as another reason to not coordinate protest actions. At the same time, officials agreed to hold mass pro-government or patriotic events.
• In March, the ECtHR declared the “covid” ban on mass protests illegal because it violates the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.