The court refused to consider the complaint of “Yabloko” on the seizure of anti-war paintings by Elena Osipova
[ad_1]
The St. Petersburg City Court recognized as lawful the repeated refusal of the Dzerzhinsky District Court to consider the complaint of Andrei Chertkov, a lawyer for the St. Petersburg branch of the Yabloko party. The appeal was related to the seizure of paintings by 77-year-old artist Elena Osipova from the party headquarters, where the exhibition “Peace Art Protest” was held. In Yabloko, the actions of law enforcement officers are called a provocation and insist that the seizure of artworks took place without the necessary legal procedures. Meanwhile, as part of the pre-investigation check, these works are now undergoing a comprehensive psychological and linguistic examination, which may result in the initiation of a criminal case under the article on the dissemination of knowingly false information about the army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)
In February 2023, the head of the Yabloko faction in the legislative assembly of St. Petersburg and the chairman of the regional branch of the party, Alexander Shishlov, in an appeal to the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for St. false report about mining” (Article 207 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The reason was a visit to the office of the security forces, who allegedly received a message about a bomb in the building of the regional branch of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (RODP Yabloko). However, in Yabloko they are sure that in fact the representatives of law enforcement agencies in the party headquarters were interested in something completely different.
On January 31, the exhibition “PEACE Art Protest” was opened here with pacifist paintings by 77-year-old opposition artist and civil activist Elena Osipova. Ms. Osipova is known for taking to the streets of St. Petersburg for about two decades with single pickets and posters with protest slogans. In particular, in her works, Elena Osipova criticized the hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. The security forces took away 19 paintings and posters from the office on Shpalernaya Street. According to the police, the works have “textual inscriptions that probably contain false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces.”
In an appeal to the prosecutor and the head of the police headquarters, Alexander Shishlov demanded that the work be returned to the artist. The lawyer of the St. Petersburg Yabloko, Andrey Chertkov, then twice filed a lawsuit with the Dzerzhinsky District Court against investigator Tikhomirov, whose actions, according to Yabloko representatives, contained violations of Art. 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (action (inaction) and decisions of officials conducting criminal proceedings). Judge Soboleva returned them to the applicant due to “technical shortcomings”. Note that in May 2023, the city court of St. Petersburg sided with the regional branch of Yabloko. Then, speaking at the meeting, Alexander Shishlov said that the party considers the seizure of paintings a provocation, which took place under the pretext of “false mining”. The decision of judge Soboleva was canceled as illegal and unfounded, and the complaint of the party members was sent for a new consideration on the merits in the Dzerzhinsky court by another judge. But judge Brazhnikov later refused to consider the claim, after which a new appeal to the court of appeal followed.
This time, the city court upheld the lower court’s decision. Lawyer Andrei Chertkov, in a conversation with Kommersant, said that this “contradicts the decision of three months ago.” The lawyer insists that the security forces came to the office of the political party, interrupting the event, and “seized, in fact, someone else’s property — works that investigator Tikhomirov did not like outside the scope of the search.” “I believe that here the rights of the Yabloko party have been violated and have not been restored for half a year,” summed up Andrei Chertkov, who promised to further appeal this fact. The party plans to appeal to a higher court after reading the August 4 court ruling.
In Yabloko, Kommersant was also told that at the moment, as part of the pre-investigation check, the images are undergoing a comprehensive psychological and linguistic examination, which should end in August this year. Based on its results, it is planned to decide whether to initiate a criminal case under the article on fakes about the army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) or not. At the same time, they note in the party, it is not clear which department organized the check.
[ad_2]
Source link
