Deputy head of Navalny's campaign office in St. Petersburg arrested for 6 days for arranging unauthorized rally
ST. PETERSBURG. Aug 12 (Interfax) - St. Petersburg's Dzerzhinsky District Court has found Olga Guseva, deputy head of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's city campaign office, guilty of arranging an unsanctioned public event, head of the city campaign office Alexander Shurshev told Interfax on Monday.
The court found Guseva guilty on the charge of organization or holding of a public event without a notification about holding it filed in line with the established rules of the Russian Administrative Offense Code and penalized her with six days of administrative arrest, Shurshev said.
"The court found the indications of a crime on this count [Part 2 Article 20.2 of the Russian Administrative Offense Code] in those videos, which she posted on social networks, in which she said that she will attend pickets supporting unregistered independent candidates to the Moscow City Duma," the interlocutor of the news agency said.
Guseva could not attend the rally, which was held in St. Petersburg last Saturday, because she was detained at the beginning of the event, Shurshev said. The protocol on the count she is charged with was drawn up only in the early hours on Sunday, while Guseva first was detained without providing any reasons for that, he said.
As reported, a rally of solidarity with protesters of the Moscow rally backing independent candidates to the Moscow City Duma was held in St. Petersburg on August 10. According to rights defenders, 79 people were detained at the protest.
The St. Petersburg police did not comment on the situation.