The Moscow City Court partially satisfied the claim of ex-prisoner Konstantin Kotov about poor conditions of detention

In an appeal, the Moscow City Court partially satisfied the claim of former political prisoner Konstantin Kotov against the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow, the Federal Penitentiary Service for Moscow and the Vladimir Region and correctional colony No. 2. Kotov himself told OVD-Info about this.

The court ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to pay the activist 10 thousand rubles, and the Federal Penitentiary Service - 50 thousand rubles. At the same time, on February 11, the Perovsky District Court of Moscow, during the initial consideration of the case, refused to satisfy Kotov’s claim.

In his complaint, Kotov noted the excessively long convoy time and poor conditions of detention during the transfer, “humiliating treatment” by colony officials and other violations.

In September 2019, the Tverskoy District Court sentenced Konstantin Kotov to four years in a general regime colony under the “Dada” article on repeated violations of the rules for participation in public events (Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code). However, in April 2020, the court, when reconsidering the appeal, reduced this term to one and a half years in prison.

The basis for initiating a case against Kotov was his participation in a rally in support of Azat Miftakhov , the action “In Defense of the New Generation” near the FSB building, a rally in support of Ivan Golunov and in a walk after the action for fair elections on August 10, as well as the activist’s call to go to Trubnaya area due to the exclusion of independent candidates from the elections.

The court considered the merits of Konstantin Kotov’s case in two days; the revision took three days.

• Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code - “Dadinskaya” - punishes repeated violations of the rules for holding events. The first person convicted under this article was activist Ildar Dadin. In 2017, in connection with the criminal prosecution of Dadin, the Constitutional Court recommended that cases under this article be initiated only if the actions of the alleged violator constituted a threat to society. Despite these recommendations, Russian security forces continue to use Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code to put pressure on opposition activists, even if their actions did not create a threat to society.