Week-ending 14 May 2021
On 11 May 2021 the former mayor of Ekaterinburg, Evgeny Roizman, was sentenced to nine days in jail for ‘organising an unsanctioned event’ on 31 January and 21 April by posting on Twitter. On 13 May a court reduced his sentence to one day on appeal. No reason for the decision was given.
Sources:
The Moscow Times, 11 May 2021: The former opposition mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city has been sentenced to nine days in jail for promoting this year’s nationwide pro-Navalny protests on his Twitter, the MBKh Media news website reported Wednesday. Mass protests calling for the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny were held across Russia on Jan. 23, Jan. 31 and April 21. Tens of thousands took to the streets during the protests, which weren’t sanctioned by the authorities, with over 12,000 detained nationwide and widespread reports of police violence against protesters.
RFE/RL, 13 May 2021: A Russian court has cut the jail term of opposition politician and former Yekaterinburg Mayor Yevgeny Roizman from nine days to one day after he appealed the ruling against him for his online posts about a January 31 rally to support jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny. The Sverdlovsk regional court in Yekaterinburg made the decision on May 13, a day after the city’s Oktyabr district court sentenced Roizman, who is also a former member of parliament’s lower chamber, the State Duma, for organizing an unsanctioned rally after he urged his nearly 500,000 followers on Twitter to take to the streets. No reason for the decision was given.” The court on May 2 also found Roizman guilty of organizing a pro-Navalny rally in Yekaterinburg on April 21 and sentenced him to nine days in jail on that charge as well, but ruled that the punishments on both charges must be served simultaneously. The Sverdlovsk regional court shortened both sentences to one day.
