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Russian Constitutional Court rules to review activist Konstantin Kotov’s verdict

The man was previously sentenced to 4 years for repeated violation of rally procedure

Konstantin Kotov Andrei Vasilyev/TASS

Konstantin Kotov

© Andrei Vasilyev/TASS

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. The Second Court of Appeal has redirected the case of activist Konstantin Kotov, previously sentenced to 4 years for repeated violation of rally procedure, to Moscow City Court’s appeal department for review.

The Prosecutor’s Office asked to reduce Kotov’s sentence from four years to 12 months. The court also received a complaint from the Commissioner for Human Rights, who called the sentence "overly strict." The defense insists that the sentence must be cancelled as unlawful.

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The Court of Appeal returned the case to the Moscow City Court’s appeal body, which no side sought. Kotov will remain in custody for two months until the Moscow City Court reviews the complaint, the judge ruled.

Kotov’s attorney Anna Stavitskaya says the Court of Appeal’s ruling is motivated by unwillingness to "take responsibility for this case’s outcome."

Sentence

On January 27, the Constitutional Court ruled to review Kotov’s verdict. The Court pointed out that lower courts must study all circumstances of the case and sentence defendants to prison in accordance with Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code only if it is conclusively determined that the defendant’s actions at a public event carried real threat to public order.

In September 2019, Kotov was sentenced to four years. The Investigative Committee disclosed that, for six months, Kotov had been repeatedly fined for rally procedure violations. Following the sentencing, Kotov’s representatives turned to the Constitutional Court, asking to check Article 212.1, under which he was convicted, for compliance with the Constitution.

The first man sentenced by the same Article was activist Ildar Dadin, who was slapped with a real prison term in 2015. Dadin appealed the Article in the Constitutional Court, that ruled to review the sentence, resulting in Dadin’s release. Article 212.1 was proposed for decriminalization, but the idea failed to gain support among the lawmakers. In 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that criminal prosecution for repeated violation of rally rules must be proportional to the infringement.

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