Alexei Gorinov’s lawyer invited Ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova to the court

Lawyer Katerina Tertukhina, representing the interests of the former Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, sent an invitation to the court to Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation. This is stated in the appeal of Ms. Tertukhina, which also contains a request to the Ombudsman to seek “the immediate release of Alexei Gorinov in accordance with the opinion of the UN working group.” Previously, as informed Kommersant, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention announced a series of violations of international law in the criminal prosecution of the ex-deputy.

Aleksey Gorinov is the first person sentenced in Russia to real imprisonment under the article on disseminating false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The court sentenced him to seven years in prison for statements made during a working meeting of deputies about Russia’s military actions on the territory of Ukraine. Aleksey Gorinov’s defense asked the UN to pay attention to the persecution of his principal, pointing out that his detention “was illegal”, the prosecution was “unreasonable”, and the punishment imposed was “disproportionate” to the deed.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (a quasi-judicial mechanism that considers particular cases of persecution of persons on the territory of UN member states) concluded that there were violations of Art. 19 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Art. 19 and 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and called on the Russian authorities to “immediately release” the ex-deputy. It should be noted that, in accordance with the opinion of the Constitutional Court of Russia, the decisions of the UN working group are “the basis for the resumption of proceedings” and, accordingly, its revision.

All these circumstances are described in Katerina Tertukhina’s appeal to Tatyana Moskalkova (a copy is at the disposal of Kommersant).

“Based on the foregoing, I ask you to demand the immediate release of Gorinov A.A. by all possible and accessible means, to personally attend the meeting on March 14 at the Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction (where the appeal against the sentence of the former deputy will be considered.— “b”),” the document says. It also states that if the cassation court refuses to satisfy the appeal, the lawyer asks the Ombudsman “to file a cassation complaint with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.” Such powers of the ombudsman, we recall, are provided for by Russian law; about a similar appeal to the RF Armed Forces to Tatyana Moskalkova earlier asked and deputies of the Moscow City Duma.

Maria Starikova