Press Release, 6.03.2023

Photo: Emilia Slabunova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 6 March, the Supreme Court of Karelia held a hearing on the appeal of Emilia Slabunova, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia from Yabloko. Slabunova, together with defence lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky, asked to cancel the decision of the Petrozavodsk City Court, which on 2 February fined her 30,000 roubles under the administrative article on “discrediting the army”. The Judge upheld the decision of the City Court.

Emilia Slabunova was accused of “discrediting the army” (Article 20.3.3, Part 1, of the Code of Administrative Offenses) because at a meeting of the Karelian Legislative Assembly she called for spending money on the education of children, and not on military operations.

In addition, the public prosecution side based its accusation on the statement of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party “On urgent measures to prevent a possible nuclear conflict” published by Emilia Slabunova.

On 2 February, the judge of the Petrozavodsk City Court rejected all eight motions of the defence. The Court also ignored the arguments of the defence about numerous procedural errors in the case and the absurdity of the prosecution as such.

Emilia Slabunova notes that courts’ decisions on political cases, apparently, have no chance of being changed in higher court instances in these political realities, they have little to do with law and their goals are to frighten the dissenting.

“The decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia will definitely be appealed to the cassation instance. I believe that my constitutional right to life in a state of law has been violated, as provided in Article 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation,” Emilia Slabunova says.

The politician’s defender Alexander Kobrinsky also believes that the court’s decision has nothing to do with law.

“This decision [of the court] means, in my opinion, that all this was predetermined and agreed upon in Karelia. I have already got used to the fact that in cases of this kind, which are openly political in nature, it is impossible to prove to the court that a person did not mean to commit what he/she was charged with. But in this case there were gross procedural violations that cannot be explained from the point of view of the law. And any normal court that impartially approaches the case, would certainly not adopt such decisions, and cancel those made [by a lower instance court],” Alexander Kobrinsky notes.

EMILIA SLABUNOVA

is member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, Chair of Yabloko in 2015-2019.

Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia.

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Honoured Teacher of Russia