MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. The Presidium of Russia’s Supreme Court has repealed a guilty verdict passed on opposition activist Ildar Dadin for violating the rules of public gatherings, a TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom.

"The Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has ruled to repeal the verdict, terminate the case’s proceedings and release Dadin from custody," the judge read out the judgment. 

The counsel for the activist’s defense has not yet decided whether it will demand compensation for the illegal criminal prosecution.

"We have not yet discussed this issue with Ildar," lawyer Kseniya Kostromina said. 

Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin whose guilty verdict has been repealed by Russia’s Supreme Court on Wednesday will most likely be released from the penal colony on February 27, Kostromina added. 

"It is unknown when Dadin wil be released. The point is that the state courier service must take a certified copy of the Supreme Court’s judgement and send it as a matter of urgency to the colony’s administration. Considering the upcoming national holidays, Dadin may leave the penal colony only on Monday," the lawyer said.

Earlier a prosecutor has asked Russia’s Supreme Court to repeal the guilty verdict slapped on opposition activist Ildar Dadin sentenced to imprisonment for numerous violations of the rules of holding public gatherings, a TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom.

"I’m requesting the Supreme Court Presidium to repeal the verdict and terminate the case’s proceedings, release Dadin from custody and recognize his right to rehabilitation," the prosecutor said. 

Dadin’s case

Article 212.1, introduced in the Russian Criminal Code in July 2014, stipulates criminal liability for repeated violations of the rules of public gatherings. Dadin is the first and by far the only one person convicted under this article.

In December 2015, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court found Dadin guilty on four counts of participating in unauthorized protests in Moscow. He was sentenced to three years in a penal colony but then the Moscow City Court reduced his jail term to two and a half years.

Dadin filed an appeal against the article under which he had been convicted with the Constitutional Court.

Complaints against torture

In November 2016, the Russian media published a letter by Dadin saying that he was subject to torture while serving his sentence in the Segezh colony in Karelia, northwestern Russia. However, independent doctors who visited him in the colony found no signs of bodily injuries, neither did investigators.

Later it became known that after a probe, Dadin was transferred to a penal colony in the Altai region, Siberia.