16:47, 20 April 2024

Prosecutor’s Office proposes to release human rights defender Nagavkin from punishment

Igor Nagavkin. Photo by Vyacheslav Lemkus SOTAvision https://sotavision.world

Volgograd human rights defender Igor Nagavkin should have his sentence commuted in the theft case and released from further punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the Prosecutor’s Office states. The defence intends to request the court not to mitigate the sentence of Igor Nagavkin, but to acquit him, his advocate reports.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in the Krasnodar Territory, the court of cassation cancelled the ruling of the Volgograd Regional Court, which upheld Igor Nagavkin’s sentence in the theft case. The case has been sent for reconsideration.

On April 18, 2023, the court found Igor Nagavkin guilty of stealing jewellery from a pawnshop and sentenced him to six years of imprisonment. The Volgograd Regional Court reduced his prison term by two months.

Lyudmila Zibarova, the prosecutor of the Bykovsky District of the Volgograd Region, reported that an inspection was carried out concerning the Igor Nagavkin’s case and procedural violations were found. So, his actions were reclassified under a more “tough” article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In 2016, Igor Nagavkin, an expert of the all-Russian movement “For Human Rights”* in the Southern Federal District (SFD), was arrested in the case on theft of jewellery. The human rights defender pleaded not guilty. In November 2018, Igor Nagavkin was released and resumed his human rights activities, but the criminal case was not closed.

Let us remind you that in October 2023, it became known that the investigation was underway against Igor Nagavkin in the case on disorganization of the operation of the SIZO (pre-trial prison).

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 19, 2024 at 02:47 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: СK correspondent