On November 22, Pervomaisky Kirov court arrested ex-coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters Artur Abashev for five days for holding a mass picket without informing the mayor's office.
Artur Abashev did not come to pronouncement of a verdict, in case of arrest, he was not taken to the detention center immediately from the court. He and his defender Denis Shadrin will appeal to the Kirov Regional Court on 22 November. Complaint should be considered within 24 hours.
We failed to get an immediate comment of Denis Shadrin.
The hearing on the administrative case against Abashev took place on November 21. A report drawn up by the police stated that Artur Abashev organized a series of single pickets, united by the same idea — the participants supported the policy of Alexey Navalny. The police considered that the totality of single pickets with the same subject matter was a mass public event, and it was necessary to notify the mayoralty about it. The protocol states that Abashev did not give notice to the administration.
The defense denied this. Denis Shadrin, defender of Abashev, attached three notifications to the case materials: two about holding a rally on October 7, which Abashev filed on September 25, one more — about picket on October 2 — was filed by one of the members of Navalny's headquarters in Kirov. That means, the norm of the law on the coordination of public actions was followed.
The defense demanded to stop the proceedings on the basis of the fact that there is no such form of public event as a set of single pickets in legislation.
Denis Shadrin pointed out that in individual cases only a court can recognize a set of single pickets as a public event. According to the defense, the police exceeded their authority when they drew a conclusion without judge's decision.
Artur Abashev drew attention of the court to the fact that the police committed violations during drawing up of the protocol — they did not read Denis Shadrin’s rights and did not explain his status in the case. This automatically makes it impossible to further examine administrative proceedings.
The administrative case against Artur Abashev was instituted after October 7, when the supporters of Navalny came to the Philharmonic with single pickets. They demanded to allow the politician to participate in presidential elections. The police considered that Abashev was the organizer of a "mass public event in the form of a picket" and did not notify the authorities. By law, there is no need to coordinate single pickets.
Navalny's headquarters opened in Kirov in June this year; immediately after it, unknown people burned the car of Artur Abashev, they were not found. Abashev left the post of coordinator of the headquarters due to employment in other projects. His place was taken by Anton Metelev.
Katerina Klepikovskaya, «7x7»
