The court hearing was held as video conferencing

Press Release, 27.03.2020

On 27 March, the Vakhitovsky District Court of Kazan, the Republic of Tatarstan, assigned a fine of 150,000 roubles to Marina Shoetova, supporter of the Tatrstan branch of Yabloko. The court hearing was held in a video conferencing regime.

The law enforcement and the court considered the series of one-person pickets (that do not require any permissions from the authorities) against Vladimir Putin’s amendments to the Constitution, which took place in Kazan on March 9, to be a mass-scale picket. According to them, Shoetova was the organiser of the action and had to coordinate it with the city authorities. The activist and her lawyer Rushan Kabirov indicated in the protocol that they did not agree with the arguments of the police. The defence plans to appeal the court decision.

Marina Shoetova emphasised that she only brought posters for the picketers and collected signatures against the adoption of amendments to the Constitution, and did not participate in the one-person picketing.

Marina Shoyetova was charged in accordance of Article 20.2 Part 8 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation – “a repeated violation of the established procedure for organising or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picket”. According to police, on March 9, the activist organised a series of one-person pickets against amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation near the Koltso shopping moll in Kazan.

Marina Shoetova was detained on March 27, when she was leaving her house. The police did not give the activist the reasons for the detention. In the police department Shoetova was handed a protocol on an administrative offense.

In February, Marina Shoetova was arrested for eight days for participating in a series of one-peron pickets for the resignation of Artem Khokhorin, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan. The police and the court considered that Shoetova also violated Article 20.2 Part 2 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation – “organisation or holding of a public event without a notice”.