Week-ending 18 December 2020
This week activist Konstantin Kotov, designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was released from prison after serving 18 months for ‘repeated violations’ of Russia’s draconian laws of assembly – Article 212.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. Meanwhile prosecutors requested that opposition municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina be imprisoned for three years under the same Article – also for repeated violations of public assembly law. This week Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina was also fined for taking part in a public performance protest.
Article 212.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. Repeated violation of the established procedure for organising or conducting an assembly, rally, demonstration, march or picket
Violation of the established procedure for organising or conducting an assembly, rally, demonstration, march or picket, if this act is committed repeatedly –
– is punishable by a fine of between 600,000 roubles and 1m roubles or to the amount of the convicted person’s wages or other income for a period of between two and three years, or by compulsory labour for up to four hundred and eighty hours, or by corrective labour for a period of between one and two years, or by compulsory labour for up to five years, or by imprisonment for the same period.
Note. A violation of the established procedure for organising or conducting an assembly, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing committed by a person on multiple occasions shall be deemed a violation of the established procedure for organising or conducting an assembly, rally, demonstration, march or picket if the person has previously been held administratively liable for administrative violations under Article 20.2 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation more than twice within a period of one hundred and eighty days.
For the original Russian see here.
Sources:
The Moscow Times, 16 December 2020: Russian activist Konstantin Kotov was released from prison Wednesday after serving 18 months for “multiple breaches” of Russia’s protest law. Kotov, who was arrested during the summer 2019 Moscow election protests, was the second person ever to be prosecuted under the controversial law criminalizing “repeated” participation in unauthorized rallies. A Moscow court cut the 35-year-old computer programmer’s four-year jail sentence to 18 months this spring.
RFE/RL, 17 December 2020: A second member of the Russian protest collective Pussy Riot has been punished by a Moscow court for her part in a performance last month to highlight harsh prison sentences handed down against people who hurled plastic cups and plastic bottles at police. Lawyer Mansur Gilmanov said on December 17 that Maria Alyokhina was found guilty of violating regulations on public gatherings and ordered to pay 15,000-ruble ($204) fine. On November 28, Alyokhina, her colleague Rita Flores, also known as Margarita Konovalova, and artist Farkhad Israfilli-Gelman staged a performance they called “Fragile! Handle With Care!” not far from the State History Museum near Red Square in the Russian capital.
The Moscow Times, 18 December 2020: Moscow prosecutors have requested a three-year jail sentence for opposition municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina for multiple violations of Russian protest law, Galyamina said Friday. Galyamina was arrested alongside 140 others this summer for rallying against a package of constitutional amendments which among other changes pave the way for President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036. Six months earlier, courts had fined Galyamina for taking part in the summer 2019 street protests over local elections.
