Krasnodar Court dismisses appeal against activist Darya Polyudova's arrest

On November 10, the Krasnodar Regional Court considered an appeal filed by Darya Polyudova, an activist of the "Rot Front" against her arrest and upheld the lower court's decision to extend the arrest until late November. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Viktor Chirikov, an activist of the Krasnodar branch of the All-Russian democratic movement "Solidarity". The oppositionist is being kept in custody since August 15. She faces up to 5 years of imprisonment. The Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (USPP) has recognized the Krasnodar activist a political prisoner.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that, the activists intended to hold a protest action against the Russia's policy on August 17 in Krasnodar. Two days prior to the scheduled event, Darya Polyudova, an activist of the "Rot Front", was detained on charge of disorderly conduct, and on September 16, the court sentenced her to 14 days of administrative arrest. However, upon the expiration of her arrest, the young woman was not released. At present, she is still being kept at the SIZO (pre-trial prison). On September 25, the "Rosfinmonitoring" included Darya Polyudova and two residents of Krasnodar Vyacheslav Martynov and Pyotr Lyubchenkov, in the "List of organizations and individuals with respect to whom there is evidence of their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism".

During the court hearing on November 10, a prosecutor supported his claim to uphold the lower court's decision by the fact that on November 5, a new episode was revealed in the case under Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for actions to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation). According to Viktor Chirikov, this statement came as a surprise for Darya Polyudova herself and her advocate, who were not notified about that fact in advance.

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