Press Release, 18.09.2024

Photo: Vasily Neustroyev/ Photo from social media

The hearing on the merits of the case against Vasily Neustroyev will take place in the St. Petersburg City Court on 25 September, after 15 months of his imprisonment. The case will be heard by a judge only, since all the defendants in the case refused to have the case heard by a jury.

It should be noted that Vasily Neustroyev, Chairman of the Frunzensky local branch of the St. Petersburg Yabloko, is charged under the following six criminal articles at once:

– Article 207.3, Part 2, items “b” and “d” (“public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of armed forces” by a group of persons motivated by political hatred – up to ten years in prison);

– Article 212, Part 1.1 (“involvement in the organisation of mass riots” – up to ten years in prison);

– Article 239, Part 2 (“establishment of an NGO that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens” – up to six years in prison);

– Article 280.4, Part 3 (“public calls for activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation” committed by an organised group – up to seven years in prison);

– Article 282.1, Part 1 (“establishment of an extremist community” – up to ten years in prison);

– Article 354.1, Part 4 (“rehabilitation of Nazism” by prior conspiracy – up to five years in prison).

The investigation links Vasily Neustroyev with the Vesna movement, which held anti-war actions. Meanwhile, Neustroyev has had neither relation to the movement nor has been its member.

On 6 June, 2023, Neustroyev’s apartment in St. Petersburg was searched. On the same day, he as a detainee was taken to Moscow for questioning at the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

The first court hearing on the merits will begin on 25 September at 11:00. The hearing will take place in the court  at the address: St. Petersburg, Basseynaya Street 6, courtroom 58.  Neustroyev’s support group notes that the hearing will be open, but the format of subsequent hearings largely depends on the behaviour of the audience, and kindly asks all those who come to support Neustroyev and other defendants in the Vesna case to observe the rules of conduct in court: maintain silence in the courtroom and in the courthouse, not take self-defence equipment or campaign materials to the courtroom, refrain from wearing clothes with campaigning slogans or shocking inscriptions, and not come into conflict with court employees.