Activists of "Voice of Beslan" succeed in seeking commutation of Emilia Bzarova's sentence

The Supreme Court (SC) of North Ossetia has reclassified the actions of Emilia Bzarova, an activist of the "Voice of Beslan", involved in the protest action. As a result, her punishment was commuted from 20 down to 10 hours of community service.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 1, in Beslan, law enforcers detained women involved in a protest action, who came dressed in the T-shirts with accusations against the President of Russia. The Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia found them guilty of violating the public order. The Court sentenced four female activists to 20 hours of community service and fined two others 20,000 roubles.

During the today's court hearing, the actions of Emilia Bzarova were reclassified from Part 2 of Article 20.2 (organization of an unsanctioned action) to Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Russian Administrative Code (violation of established order of holding an action). The SC has found that Emilia Bzarova "was a participant, but not the organizer of the action."

The activists have found the Court's decision unreasonable and commutation of punishment – insignificant.

In her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, Ella Kesaeva has stated that the activists "will send a supervisory appeal against the judge's decision to the chair of the Supreme Court, and then they will apply to further instances up to the Strasbourg Court."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.