A court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted one of the leaders of a leading independent election monitoring group for organizing a “undesirable” organization work and sentenced him to five years in jail.Grigory Melconants, co-head of Russia’s leading electoral watchdog Golos, have dismissed the allegations as politically motivated. The case against him is part of months rift on Kremlin critics and rights activists, which was attended by the government after attacking Ukraine in 2022. A judge of the Besanni District Court ruled, 44 -year -old, Melanants told several dozen supporters and journalists from the glass defectist’s cage: “Don’t worry, I am not disappointed. You should not disappoint!”
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Do you believe that the allegations against Grigry Melconants are politically motivated?
Golos has monitored and exposed violations in every major election in Russia as it was established in 2000. Over the years, it has faced increasing pressure from the authorities. In 2013, the group was designated as a “foreign agent” – a label that means additional government investigation and bears strong pejorative meanings. Three years later, it was liquid as a non-governmental organization by the Ministry of Justice of Russia. Golos continues to work without registering as an NGO, exposing violations in various elections, and in 2021 it was added to a new registry of “foreign agents”, designed by the Ministry of Justice for groups that are not registered as a legal unit in Russia. It has not been nominated as “undesirable” – a label that commits a criminal offense with such organizations under the 2015 law. But when it was an NGO, the election was a member of the European network of monitoring organizations, or Animal, a group that was declared “undesirable” in Russia in 2021, and accusations against the melanocontants. In his concluding statement in court on Monday, fully published by independent news outlets Mediajona and Meduza, Melconants talked about how rights and freedom are often given, but look very different from “behind bars”, and it is clear that someone should continuously “protect and defend”. The defense argued that when Animal was declared illegal in Russia, Golos was not a member, and Melcontants had nothing to do with it. Famous election experts and lawyers were arrested by training in August 2023 and have been in custody since then. Ella Pamfilova, Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia, the country’s Chief Election Authority spoke in its support at that time, the Russian business daily told the daily Vedomosty: “I would really like to hope that they would handle this fairly. Because his criticism, often professional, sometimes helped us a lot. , Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years, which has intensified between war in Ukraine. Many independent news outlets and rights groups have been closed, which is labeled as “foreign agents” or declared as “undesirable”. Hundreds of Kremlin activists and critics have faced criminal allegations. The Melconants’ defense team said after the decision that they would appeal. Advocate Mikhail Birukov told reporters that “there is no evidence in the case” that he and other people of the other defense team consider “politically motivated, pretend”. “We will fight for the freedom of Grigry, as an illegal, unjust decision should not be present. It should not stand up (in the appeal proceedings). We all hope that the law will be strong,” said Birukov. According to Mediajona, Melkonints would have to serve less than half the service of that word, keeping in mind the time of spending in custody in advance. Memorial, the major human rights group of Russia, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, nominated Melankoni as a political prisoner.
