Last year, a St. Petersburg court found Trofimov guilty of organizing a demonstration without permission from the authorities. The man has not visited Russia since 2019.
The St. Petersburg court has overturned the sentence handed down last summer, in which an activist from Turku Petr Trofimov was sentenced to fines under the so-called demonstration section for a post published on social media.
– It’s not about justice, but the judge’s attempt to negotiate with his conscience. However, I don’t know if the word “conscience” can be used in the same sentence with the words “Russian state judge”, because he is a person appointed by Putin’s direct order. If the judge takes such cases into consideration, the court has only heard the law, maybe even read the law book, but does not follow it, Trofimov commented on the case to Novosti.
reported on the indictment in August 2022.
Trofimov is from St. Petersburg. The man has not visited Russia since autumn 2019. He regularly organizes demonstrations and participates in anti-war demonstrations in Finland.
Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, Trofimov published in Russian Vkontakte (you will switch to another service)-service, the following message: 27.2. say no to war in your city’s main square. The post was seen by 53 people and liked by three.
On February 27, anti-war demonstrations were organized in different countries. Between 500 and 1,000 people gathered in the center of St. Petersburg to protest against the war. Russian authorities saw Trofimov’s post and took the matter to court.
In August, a court in the Primorsk region of St. Petersburg found him guilty of organizing a demonstration without the permission of the authorities and fined him 20,000 rubles (about 264 euros). The judge did not take into account that the man does not live in Russia. Trofimov and his lawyer appealed the decision.
– We immediately delivered a copy of Petri’s passport to the first trial, which showed that he had crossed the border between Russia and Finland years ago and had not visited Russia since. The police also broke the rules when preparing the report: they did not inform Petri about the preliminary investigation. In other words, the police violated his right to defense, says the lawyer Maxim Olenichev For Novosti.
Last October, the St. Petersburg City Court overturned the regional court’s decision and ordered a new hearing. According to the lawyer, the court closed the case on February 3, 2023, but it may take up to a month before all the documents are ready.
– The court of the Primorsk region of St. Petersburg heard our arguments in a new hearing before a different judge and dismissed the charge. All legal documents have not yet been prepared and submitted to us, so we do not know the exact reason for the termination of the case in the absence of an administrative violation. However, there are no other reasons for ending the processing of the case. So I assume with great certainty that the judge used exactly these arguments to waive the case, Olenichev said.
In Russia, Section 20.2 of the Administrative Law concerns the violation of the order of the demonstration, and it is Russia’s most important instrument for prosecuting the participants and organizers of demonstrations.
An independent Russian human rights organization OVD info (you switch to another service) says 19,500 Russians have been arrested in anti-war protests since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The story has also been published in Russian.
Watch an archive video of an anti-war demonstration in St. Petersburg on February 24, 2022:
An independent Russian human rights organization OVD info (you switch to another service) according to 19,500 Russians have been arrested in anti-war demonstrations since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.