Activists of "Voice of Beslan" treat court attitude to their case as biased

Today, the North-Ossetian Supreme Court has held another session on the complaint of activists of the "Voice of Beslan".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 1, in Beslan, law enforcers detained women involved in a protest action, who came dressed in the T-shirts with accusations against the President of Russia. The Pravoberezhny Court of North Ossetia found them guilty of violating the public order. The Court sentenced four female activists to 20 hours of community service and fined two others 20,000 roubles.

Today, the court has ruled to mitigate the punishment of Zhanna Tsirikhova, a participant of the action in Beslan, by reducing the fine imposed on her, since she was just a participant, not an organizer of the action. Besides, the court took into account the fact that Zhanna Tsirikhova is a Category 2 invalid and has a dependent child.

At the same time, the judge considered that Tsirikhova "took part in a picket, not in a peaceful assembly." "Tsirikhova took part in an unsanctioned action by putting on a white T-shirt with the inscription 'Putin – an executioner of Beslan', attracting the attention of media, shouting at the policemen "You are killers' and behaving aggressively," Judge Nazira Kokaeva has read out her judgement.

The court has ruled to decrease the fine imposed on Zhanna Tsirikhova from 20,000 to 10,000 roubles.

Women-activists of the "Voice of Beslan" keep asserting that, despite the mitigation of the punishment, the court disregards the arguments of the defence.

Zhanna Tsirikhova has stated, in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, her disagreement with the judgement. According to her story, the court "disregarded all her argument, which indicates the biased attitude of the court." "I didn't cry out the phrase 'You are killers'. If I had wanted to say this, I would have written it on the back of my white T-shirt," said Zhanna Tsirikhova.

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