Press Release, 21.06.2022

Photo: Lyubov Zhiltsova and Vladimir Danilov / Photo by the Press Service of the Pskov branch of Yabloko

On 17 May, the Pechorsky District Court dismissed the case of Yabloko’s Lyubov Zhiltsova, a teacher and a deputy of the Palkino District Assembly in the Pskov region, due to lack of corpus delicti. However, the employees of the Palkino Police Department appealed against this decision. The report on Lyubov Zhiltsova was drawn up for her photo by the school board with a sheet of paper with the inscription “No ** ***!”, which she published on her VKontakte page on February 25.

On 20 June, the judge of the Pskov Regional Court overturned the decision of the judge of the Pechorsky District Court ( a court of a lower instance), who on 17 May dismissed the case of the so-called “discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation” (Article 20.3.3 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) due to the absence of an administrative offense.

At the hearing, the plaintiff, the head of the district police department of the Palkino police station, said in support of the complaint that Lyubov Zhiltsova was a politically active person and a member of the Yabloko party, whose political position regarding the special military operation in Ukraine was well-known.

He also drew attention of the judge (this was not discussed in the court of first instance) that the photograph with Lyubov Zhiltsova holding a poster “No ** ***!” also pictured a blackboard with yellow and blue magnets, which, according to the police officer, was another “evidence of guilt”.

The regional court is not entitled to make a new decision on the case of an administrative offense, but it can cancel the decision of the court of first instance and send the case for a new trial to the same court with a different composition of judges, and such was the decision by the judge of the Pechorsky District Court.

Read more  about the persecution of Yabloko members after the start of the “special operation”.