Khimki town court released Maxim Solopov from the arrest

Anarchist Black Cross Moscow

Khimki town court has ruled to change the pre-trial restriction for Maxim
Solopov from arrest to a written pledge not to leave town. The court lasted
from 11 am to 4 pm today, October 18, with a three-hour break for preparation
of the court ruling. Judge Svetlana Galanova has ruled to release Maxim
Solopov from the arrest immediately in the court room.

Maxim was released in echange for the guarantees provided by Lev Ponomaryov,
executive director of movement «For Human Rights», human rights activists
Sergey Kovalyov and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, State Duma deputies Ilya Ponomaryov
and Oleg Shein, as well as Maxim’s university professors Galina Yershova,
Dmitry Belyaev and Yekaterina Di Santo. Human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov
and profesor Yekaterina Di Santo were present at the court hearings.
Yekaterina DiSanto testified in court for Maxim and told during the court
hearing that it is necessary to release Maxim in order for him to continue
his studies and pursue his career as a researcher. She told the court that
Maxim is «a very talented person, a good student and I’m glad that besides
that he is also an antifascist».

The prosecutors have presented to the court the same reasons for Maxim’s
arrest as before, which were not valid for ruling in favor of the renewal of
the arrest. The only new arguments provided by the investigator Yermilov were
the testimonies of some witness, which supposedly incriminated Solopov, the
photos which showed a person in black mask, who was supposedly Solopov, and
the document provided by the Federal Security Service (FSB),that read that
Maxim was detained on numerous occasions during «illegal» manifestations.
When asked how can you recognize Solopov on these photos, Yermilov couldn’t
provide any proof for his statements.

Maxim spoke in court and demanded that his own testimonies are considered by
the judges, including his statement that he was «taken as a hostage by the
unprofessionalism of the law enforcement agencies».

The testimonies provided by the investigators were proven wrong by the defense
— Maxim’s lawyer Yury Yeronin and human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov. The
latter indicated that during this court procedure not the guilt of the
suspect was to be established, but only the form of pre-trial restriction was
to be chosen. He also said that the procurator’s office was currently
checking the legality of the fact that Maxim was interrogated in the absence
of the lawyer and that he was subjected to pressure by the investigators.

The court has considered the arguments of the defense and ruled to release
Maxim Solopov from the arrest.

«Everything that happenned recently was considered. Both the wide social
support, the guarantees provided to the court, the speeches in court were
taken into account. This valuable result was possible due to all the things
that we did», said Lev Ponomaryov following the court ruling.

As part of the days of action, initiated by the Campaign for the release of
Khimki hostages, solidarity actions were held in 35 cities in 12 countries.
Khimki town court and other administrative bodies in Russia received hundreds
of letters of protest from around the world, which demanded to release the
Khimki hostages and to stop the campaign of falsification of evidence against
them. This was partly due to the fact that Alexey and Maxim are well known
social activists, but also

due to the fact that the investigators used illegal methods when trying to get
evidence, including mass arrests of young people and torture. The protocols
of Maxim’s and Alexey’s detention were also falsified.

On October 15 Moscow regional court has annulled the previous decision of
Khimki town court for the prolongation of the arrest of another arrested in
the Khimki case, Alexey Gaskarov. His arrest is to be recosnidered by the
Khimki court some time before October 27.

For additional information call : tel. +7-915-053-59-12

info@khimkibattle.org

http://khimkibattle.org

Section in Avtonom website: http://www.avtonom.org/en/khimki




(through http://www.avtonom.org/en/node/13770, photos there)

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