Tribute to Boris Nemtsov ends in court
A court in Murmansk convicts activist Irina Paykacheva for her participation in an unsanctioned public commemoration of late Boris Nemtsov.
Paykacheva, a member of human rights watchdog Public Observatory Commission, gets a 20000 rubles fine for her participation in a quiet rally in Murmansk downtown on March 1.
Law enforcement authorities believe that the human right activist was the person initiating the protest and won support from a local court which gave Paykacheva a 20000 rubles fine. Paykacheva herself denies that she was the leader of the event, 7x7-journal writes.
The protest was organized as a silent one-person rotating demonstration. Over several hours, one person after another stood in the Murmansk central square with a poster of Boris Nemtsov, the opposition politician who had been killed just two day before, on 27 February.
Paykacheva had earlier applied for permission to hold another and bigger peace rally in the city on the same day. That request, however, was turned down by local authorities.
The activist is also the coordinator of a new project initiated by the Moscow Helsinki Group aimed at monitoring police behaviour in the region.
