Activist detained while trying to pass demand for investigation into persecution of gays in Chechnya to Prosecutor General's Office fined 10,000 rubles
MOSCOW. July 28 (Interfax) - The Moscow Tverskoi District Court has fined Valentina Dekhtyarenko, an Otkrytaya Rossia member detained on May 11 along with other activists while carrying demands for an investigation into information regarding the persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya to the Prosecutor General's Office, 10,000 rubles for violating regulations governing the organization of rallies and demonstrations.
"The Tverskoi District Court has fined Valentina Dekhtyarenko, a member of the Moscow division of Otkrytaya Rossia and a participant in the human rights movement, 10,000 rubles for 'breaching rules governing the organization of rallies and demonstrations by an event participant'. On May 11, Dekhtyarenko and four activists planned to hand over to the Prosecutor General's Office reception office two million signatures demanding an investigation into the persecution of gays in Chechnya. The police detained the activists due to the big boxes," the Otkrytaya Rossia press service told Interfax on Friday.
The police who detained the activists and were summoned to court as witnesses told the court the young people "had stood in citizens' way and attracted attention." They said the words written on the boxes had also "attracted attention."
"Dekhtyarenko told the court the activists were using their constitutional right to make a collective request to bodies of public authority. Lawyer Anri Tsiskarishvili also told the court the activists had not notified citizens calling on them to join the action, were not handing out any leaflets, were not chanting any slogans and did not have any posters with them, meaning that their actions cannot therefore be classed as a public event," Otkrytaya Rossia said.
