Bassmany court in Moscow has barred Yevgeny Zateev, a Vesna coordinator, from using the Internet and put him under home detention curfew. He is accused of ‘creating a non-commercial organisation aimed at depriving citizens of their rights.’
Vesna is a Russia-based liberal youth movement. Zateev is not allowed to be outside his apartment between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. He will also be disallowed to interact with anyone except for his defence attorney, the investigators and his closest relatives without written authorisation from the prosecutor, as well as using post or other means of communication for any purpose other than contacting the investigators or making emergency calls. Zateev will spend his home detention in Saint Petersburg.
The court hearing was a closed one. The judge explained that ‘some people linked with Zateev’s activity may be present in the courtroom, negatively affecting the trial’.
Few people alongside media representatives were allowed in the courtroom when the verdict was pronounced, though.
Several other defendants in the same case received their restraining orders yesterday, including journalist Angelina Roshchupko, former employee of Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation Ivan Drobotov and public defender Timofey Vaskin. The latter never was a Vesna member, the organisation says.
In the early hours of 9 May, the Moscow police searched the homes of several activists, human rights advocates and reporters linked to Vesna.
Vesna believes that the pressure against their members is caused by their anti-war campaign and their ‘They [Russian WW2 veterans] fought for a different thing’ slogan. Vesna organised several anti-war rallies in Russia recently. Their website was blocked in Russia on 10 May.
