Benyash's advocates claim the court's refusal to study proofs

On September 10, the Krasnodar Territorial Court (KTC) has upheld the decision on 40 hours of compulsory work, appointed to the lawyer Mikhail Benyash under the article on violation of the procedure of organizing a rally. His guilt was not proved: law enforcers referred to his post on the Facebook placed there on the eve of the protest action, by attaching a document treated as a screenshot of Benyash's page, his defence has reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Mikhail Benyash was detained on September 9 in Krasnodar, along with participants in an unsanctioned rally against the pension reform. According to Benyash, he was beaten after detention.

When considering the appeal, the KTC judge refused to study the proofs available in the case of Mikhail Benyash and failed to evaluate the violations of his rights during detention, the lawyer's advocates told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The case files contain no description of the administrative offense imputed to Benyash, said Sergey Krainikh, one of his advocates. "It is not clear which words of Mikhail Benyash placed where had caused the opening of the administrative case," Mr Krainikh told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, adding that during the detention, Benyash was not explained his rights; and the advocate was not allowed to the police station, where Benyash was kept, for several hours.

"Mikhail was brought to responsibility for the fact that some sergeant in his office attached some strange document to the case. The first instance court refused to question the people who drew up this material; this is the reason to stop the case," Alexei Avanesyan, another advocate, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 10, 2018 at 09:51 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.