BARNAUL – Opposition activist Ildar Dadin, imprisoned for taking part in political demonstrations in Moscow who is being held in a penal colony in Rubtsovsk, Altai Territory, following the ruling on the acquittal by the Russian Supreme Court’s presidium, will walk free not until next Tuesday, Alexei Belous, chairman of the region’s public monitoring commission, told Interfax on Saturday.
“We visited the penal colony No. 5 today, met with the convicts, including Ildar, a meeting was organized upon our initiative. During the broadcast of the hearing of the Russian Supreme Court’s presidium Dadin was in a room alone, without officials of the Federal Penitentiary Service, that’s why they aren’t informed about the ruling of the court. The management of the institution is expecting the document, which is being sent by the State Courier Service to avoid forgery. In that regard, the management has no legal grounds to release Dadin at present. I believe, the document will arrive not until Tuesday,” Belous said.
Belous said that according to available information, the document was sent from Moscow on February 22, however, it is yet unknown, where it is at the moment.
On February 22, the Russian Supreme Court’s presidium ruled to release Dadin. “Release Dadin from a penitentiary and acknowledge his right to rehabilitation,” the presidium said in its ruling handed down on Wednesday, after hearing Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev’s recommendation on reopening the legal proceedings in the Dadin case in light of a Russian Constitutional Court judgment.
In December 2015, Dadin was convicted under a new law – Article 212.1 – which made repeated violations of Russia’s strict protest rules a crime.
He was originally jailed for three years – though the sentence was later reduced – for a series of peaceful protests, which often involved standing silently in the street with a sign.
The Russian Constitutional Court on February 10, 2017 said in its decision on the activist’s claim about Article 212.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (repeat violations of the rules governing the organization of rallies, demonstrations and pickets), that the court decisions made on Dadin were subject to revision.
The Constitutional Court found that the contested article did not contradict the Russian Constitution, but recommended that the legislator make adjustments to it.
Dadin was the first and so far the only person convicted for a crime under Article 212.1 of the Russian Criminal Code after its new edition appeared in the Russian Criminal Code in summer 2014. The crime is punishable by up to five years in jail. People who previously committed an administrative violation of the same name (Article 20.2 of the Russian Code of Administrative Violations) more than two times over the course of 180 days are prosecuted in accordance with Article 212.1.
