Newsletters / Weekly Human Rights Report
Hello everyone! As usual we haven’t been twiddling our thumbs. In this week’s letter we’ve decided to catch up with some old news as well as with the latest cases. We’ve spent a lot of time in court, filing complaints against incorrect police conduct and appealing unjust rulings.
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Pensioner from Tomsk receives a fine for Direct Line video message to Putin
June 22. Tomsk
The Leninsky Court in Tomsk has issued a fine to a 57 year old woman- Galina Shergina for organising an unauthorised picket. Shergina and 12 other residents of the city had recorded a video message to the president near the the building of the regional administration during the “Direct Line”in which they talked about corruption in the law enforcement system.
The participants of the video say that they decided to address the president in this way “because unfortunately normal letters do not reach him” The activists also added that “the city has been mired in corruption”.
The Court has found Shergina guilty of organizing an unauthorized picket. She has been fined 20 thousand rubles. Another detained activist, Ekaterina Gavripina, who is 70 years old, was rushed from the courtroom in an ambulance to the hospital. An Open Russia Lawyer has appealed against the decision of the court.
The prosecutor’s office declared illegal the refusal to open a criminal investigation into the attack on Sergei Mokhov
June 26. Moscow
The Moscow prosecutor’s office has decided to overrule the refusal to open up a criminal investigation into the assault on the publisher of the journal “Archaeology of Russian Death”- Sergey Mohov. The ruling came in as a response to a complaint put forward by Open Russia lawyer, Sergey Badamshin.
As indicated in the verdict, the refusal to open a case is recognized as illegal and unfounded and the evidence was sent off for additional verification. In addition, the prosecutor demanded the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to remove the violations and bring the guilty police officers to account.
Half a year ago, an unknown group assaulted Mohov at the entrance of his house and injected him with an unknown substance, after which he lost consciousness. A criminal case was never pursued.
National Guard rules its conduct during Open Russia office raid lawful
June 26. Moscow
The headquarters of the Russian National Guard has responded to lawyer Sergei Badamshin’s complaint against the organisation’s conduct during a raid of Open Russia’s offices in Moscow. The response was that the National Guard’s conduct was lawful. We will remind readers that on April 27, a few days before the “Enough” demonstrations, officers turned up to the offices in response to an anonymous complaint, blocked all employees from exiting, stopped lawyers from entering the building, confiscated laptops and all materials with the Open Russia logo on them.
Participant of the “Enough” demonstration in St Petersburg arrested
June 28. St. Petersburg
The Petrograd court has ordered the arrest of a participant of the “Enough” demonstrations, Dmitri Ilyin, nearly two months after the event took place. He received 5 days in jail under article 19.3 of the Administrative Code (disobedience to a police officer) This is the first arrest in St Petersburg in relation to the April 29 demonstrations.
Ilyin is a lawyer and presented his case at court independently. Immediately after the arrest, Open Russia helped draw up an appeal and if it proves necessary will participate in its consideration.
Student fined 150 thousand rubles for participating in June 12 demonstrations
June 30. Moscow
The Moscow Tver court has fined Mihail Aralov, a student, 150 thousand rubles for repeated participation in Alexey Navalny’s demonstrations. He had earlier taken part in the protest on the 26th of March, where he was also detained and received a fine.
Arlov was brought to the Shchukino police department on the 12th of June, where he was the only one detained for the night because he did not have his passport. At the Tver court hearing, where Open Russia lawyer Andrey Yumashev represented him, the judges refused to mitigate the punishment.
Mihail Arlov, who is a 22 year old student, currently does not have a job and has asthma related health problems. His lawyer will be appealing against the verdict of the Moscow City Court next week.