The court found ex-lawyer Mikhail Benyash guilty of assaulting policemen

The court found Krasnodar lawyer Mikhail Benyash (included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents), deprived of the status of a lawyer for three years for posts on Telegram, guilty of assaulting police officers. He was fined 30 thousand rubles.

According to investigators, in 2018, during protests against pension reform, he allegedly hit a policeman three times in the face and bit him on the hand, which was qualified as an attack on a police officer (part 1 of article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In this case, the court has already fined the lawyer for 30 thousand rubles, but in 2021 the decision was canceled. Mikhail Benyash pleaded not guilty.

In October 2022, the Ministry of Justice recognized Mikhail Benyash as a foreign agent. In February 2023, the Council of the Bar Association of the Krasnodar Territory deprived him of the status of a lawyer, since the Ministry of Justice accused him in violation of professional ethics due to seven posts in Telegram. Benyash published critical remarks about the government, the Ministry of Justice, as well as the leadership of the Bar.

Mikhail Benyash began practicing law in 2006. He also defended civil activists. In addition, Mikhail Benyash was a lawyer in the proceedings against the employees of the National Guard who refused to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.

Anastasia Larina