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Judge of the court of the first instance (Dorogomilovo Moscow court) returned to the police the case on arrest of two collectors of signatures of the YABLOKO party who were incriminated “conducting propaganda in the restricted period”.
Two party activists were detained by the Park Pobedi metro station on Thursday, July 30, and taken to the Dorogomilovo police department. They were incriminated violation of article 5.10 the Administrative Offence Code of the Russian Federation “election propaganda in the restricted period and in the places where conducting of propaganda is prohibited by law”.
The judge of the first instance court noted that protocols of arrest had been made with grave procedural errors and did not even contain the name of the policeman who had drawn the document. Moreover the facts of propaganda in the restricted period and in the prohibited place were not proved.
The judge also ruled out that the police should return to YABLOKO activists confiscated YABLOKO’s symbols (flags and coats).
Collection of signatures for registration of YABLOKO’s list in the election campaign to the Moscow City Duma will go on. 47 YABLOKO’s candidates, leaders of 17 regional groups, will join the collectors of signatures in the pickets in their districts.
However, YABLOKO can not rule out new attempts of the police to disrupt collection of signatures. YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin called such actions of the police an “arbitrary rule” and “unlawful interaction” and connected it with unwillingness of the authorities to let YABLOKO to the Moscow City Duma.
YABLOKO has to submit to the Electoral Commission about 80,000 signatures to get registered in the race. The party plans to collect 100,000 signatures in the three weeks envisaged by the law for such collection.
See also:
Elections to the Moscow City Duma, 2009 | 