Translated material
A resident of Kazan, speaking out against corruption in the republic, was fined due to a single picket
The Vakhitovsky District Court of Kazan fined local resident Rustem Bayazitov 10,000 rubles because of a solitary picket about KFU rector Lenar Safin. He himself told OVD-Info about this.
Bayazitov was found guilty under the article on organizing a public action without filing a notification (part 2 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
The man was detained on February 11, when he was holding a solo picket against corruption. Then the security forces said that the reason for the detention was Bayazitov’s last solo action: on December 10, 2022, he stood near the building of the Kazan Federal University with a poster “Who protects the rector of KFU Safin L.R.???”.
The picketer was left overnight in department No. 16. In protest, the man went on a hunger strike. The next day, Bayazitov became ill at the police station, he lost consciousness - this was noticed by the duty officer of the department, who, on his own initiative, called an ambulance. Arriving doctors recorded a hypertensive crisis in the detainee and took him to the hospital.
After the doctors helped Bayazitov and he felt better, the man was again taken to the police. On February 13, the Vakhitovsky District Court began to consider his case and postponed the next hearing to February 16.
Bayazitov stressed that the police made a mistake in the protocol on an administrative offense: the security forces wrote that on December 10 a man was standing with a poster “Why KFU needs a second Gafurov?”. This, as the picketer pointed out, confirms the video of eyewitnesses.
- Because of a single picket about the rector of KFU, which Bayazitov held in December, was fined Zelenodolsk City Council deputy Yevgeny Efremov . The reason was that he photographed a picketer and recorded a video with him, which he then published on VKontakte.
The Vakhitovsky District Court considered this action a violation of the law on rallies (part 5 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses): then the police made the same mistake in the protocol as in the case of Bayazitov. On February 15, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan canceled the fine to Efremov and sent the case materials for a new trial. Rustem Bayazitov opposes "clan" in Tatarstan, accusing the elite of corruption. Among other things, he claims that the rector of KFU, Safin, is involved in corrupt ties. The activist calls to initiate a criminal case against the head of the university and to investigate his activities as the Minister of Roads of the Republic. Before Safin, the post of rector of KFU was held by Ilshat Gafurov, against whom a criminal case was opened in 2021 for contract killing. Bayazitov connects the detention and the fine with his activities, noting that employees of the Center “E” were involved in this.