02:57, 26 April 2014

Trial on police's lawsuit against "Law and Order" leader starts in Sochi

Rights defender Roman Shikarev. Sochi, April 2014. Photo by Svetlana Kravchenko for the "Caucasian Knot"

The lawsuit concerns the protection of honour, dignity and business reputation of the police division of the Khosta District of Sochi, claimed to be damaged by rights defender Roman Shikarev in his Twitter account. Roman refuses to plead guilty.

Shikarev posted the messages after policemen of the Khosta District detained activists Olga Noskovets and David Khakim during the Olympic Games in Sochi. He used expressive and figurative words and epithets to describe the illegal, in his opinion, actions of the police.

In the opinion of the claimant Alexander Bondarev, the information posted by the activist "is untrue and has defamatory character."

The defence believes that Bondarev is an improper claimant. "The head of a state body should take criticism positively and not sue bloggers and spend his working time on it," said Alexander Popkov, Shikarev's advocate.

Author: Svetlana Kravchenko

Source: CK correspondent