The Volgograd Regional Court overturned the decision of the court of the first instance in the case of Alexander Yefimov on “participation in the activities of an undesirable organisation”
Press Release, 15.05.2024
Photo: Alexander Yefimov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service
The Volgograd Regional Court sent for revision the administrative case of Alexander Yefimov, a Yabloko Federal Bureau member, for “participation in the activities of an undesirable organisation”. On 4 April, the court of the city of Volzhsky fined Yefimov 15,000 roubles for his interview with the Youtube channel of the Golos independent observers movement. The politician’s appeal against the court’s decision cited the lack of corpus delicti and procedural errors.
It should be noted that on 20 December, 2023, Alexander Yefimov gave an interview to colleagues in the election observers’ community about the party’s position regarding the upcoming presidential elections. On 20 February, the politician was summoned to the public prosecutor’s office of the city of Volzhsky, the Volgograd region, where an administrative protocol was drawn up against him under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offences. The authorities believe that Golos is part of the international non-governmental organisation European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was declared undesirable in Russia in 2021.
“The decision of the regional court gives us hope. The defence and I are waiting for the reasoning part of the decision,” Alexander Yefimov commented.
Read more about persecution of Yabloko members since the start of the special military operation (https://www.yabloko.ru/war-against-yabloko ).
Posted: May 16th, 2024 under Elections, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Human Rights, Judiciary, Presidential Elections, Presidential Elections 2024, Yabloko's Regional Branches.