Press Release, 19.04.2023

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Today Yabloko Chairman Rybakov personally came to the hearings of the Abakan City Court of the Republic of Khakassia in a criminal case against Mikhail Afanasyev, Editor-in-Chief of the Novy Focus online media and a member of the Yabloko party.

Rybakov said that the court hearings lasted a whole working day – from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a break. The interrogation of witnesses from the prosecution side continued. In particular, five officers of the riot police in Khakassia were interrogated. According to the Chairman of the Party, this procedure will continue at the next hearing of the court, “the court has already scheduled almost weekly meetings until the end of June.”

“It is almost impossible to talk to Mikhail, as he is in a cage under police guard, who do not allow conversations with him. But as soon as we met, it immediately became clear how important such meetings were for him. And letters!!! Mikhail brought one of our postcards “Freedom to Afanasyev” with him to the court room. If you can, do write to him!!!” Rybakov urged.

It should be noted that on 13 April, 2022, Mikhail Afanasyev was detained, and then a criminal case was initiated against him under of Article 207.3, Part 2, Paragraph “a” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. He is charged with spreading “fakes about the army” using his official post. The attention of the security forces was attracted by a publication on the website of Novy Focus, which ran that 11 riot police officers from Khakassia refused to go to Ukraine.

Mikhail has been in jail for over a year already. The City Court repeatedly extended the measure of restraint, because the investigation could not prove all this time that the journalist was disseminating false information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation. On 29 March, 2023, the trial of Afanasyev’s case began.

In March of this year, the regional leaders of Yabloko Vladimir Yefimov (the Kamchatka Territory) and Anatoly Nogovitsyn (Yakutia) also appeared before the court as defendants. They were accused of “discrediting” the army (Article 280.3, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and fined 200,000 roubles each. The court also banned journalist Yefimov from using the Internet for two years.