13 July 2021
Hi! It’s Dasha Sukhikh from Team 29.
On 7 July, last week, it was exactly a year since Ivan Safronov found himself in the remand centre. The date didn’t go unmarked by many of his colleagues, who, once again, publicly expressed their support for him. Journalists from Proekt, for example, put out this little film. Take a look!
As you know, working on this case had consequences for our director, Ivan Pavlov, who had a criminal action filed against him under Article 310 of the Russian Criminal Code (breaching the confidentiality of an investigation) in connection with publicising Safronov’s case.
On 7 and 8 July appeals were heard in Moscow City Court seeking to have the warrants issued to search the home, office, and hotel room of the lawyer Ivan Pavlov recognised as unlawful. The proceedings were tense, and so the court had to extend the hearings to a full two days. The court was presented with the opinion of the Commission on the Protection of the Professional Rights of Lawyers. The opinion contains an analysis of the search warrants and arrives at the firm conclusion that both the court, in giving the green light to the searches, and the investigators, in conducting their investigations, acted unlawfully. The case of Ivan Pavlov, meanwhile, is persecution, pure and simple, for his professional activity, specifically, for working on the case of Ivan Safronov. The court was not convinced by these arguments, and all appeals against the searches were dismissed.
The criminal case of Ivan Pavlov continues, and the lawyers supporting Ivan continue to work on his defence. We are truly grateful to them for their solidarity and support. As before, you can help Ivan Pavlov by adding your name to a list of those prepared to vouch for Ivan as surety for bail. These really help when it comes to reviewing appeals against pre-trial restrictions that have been imposed. The collection of signatures is published here.
Bad news always comes with good news. On 8 July, we started a collection to fund the purchase of new equipment to replace that which was seized in the searches (losses amounted to around 1 million roubles). In just the first few days of the collection, you have transferred almost 700k roubles to us – that’s more than half of what’s needed! We’d like to thank you deeply for such support and confidence in our work. Together we’re strong! While the collection continues, you can join in supporting the Team right here. Click ❤️
Come what may, we’ll keep working.
On 8 July, a hearing was held to consider an appeal against the pre-trial measures applied in respect of our new client, professor Valery Golubkin, who is accused of treason and has been in a remand centre since 12 April. Despite the fact that Valery is 69, had cancer, and then endured Covid whilst in prison, the court decided that he must remain in custody. This is all very tragic, and we will keep fighting to have the renowned physicist freed.
On 9 July, the Team’s lawyers filed an appeal against the decision of Moscow City Court to recognise the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Cititzens’ Rights Protection Foundation, and Navalny Headquarters as extremist organisations. We set out in 58 pages why the court’s decision was unlawful, what procedural irregularities the court had committed, and why the documents on file fail to prove that these organisations’ activities were of an ‘extremist’ nature. Actually, the court’s decision regarding the Anit-Corruption Foundaiton has affected many, many people, who, as a result of the new ruling against the Anti-Corruption Foundaiton, cannot now stand for election. Some of them are also planning to appeal against the court’s decision because even though the court didn’t bring them into the proceedings, by its decision, it did affect their rights in substance. So, the battle continues, and the best is yet to come!
There was plenty of interesting stuff released on our media channels this week:
🔊 — A podcast in which we discussed the ban on equating the USSR with Nazi Germany, with the historian Nikita Petrov as our guest;
📺 — a major interview with Maxim Katz; and
📝 — a great guide on how to do interrogations, where we address the most critical issues.
I’d like to end on a positive note. Even though times are hard right now for the Team and for our clients, the huge support that we feel makes up for all this in spades. What’s more, it gives us the strength to carry on. So, there you have it – every cloud has a silver lining 🙃
Thank you, and stay tuned!
Dasha Sukhikh
Translated by Lindsay Munford
