COURT FOUND NOT GUILTY PARTICIPANTS OF LGBT ACTION AT MARSOVO FIELD

18.03.2014

Court decided: all participants of LGBT action at Marsovo field arrested after October 12, 2013 are not guilty. Case was closed on last Friday.

We remind that on October 12, 2013 it was planned to hold street meeting on Marsovo field dedicated to the International Comingout day (voluntary and open confession of one’s homosexuality or transgender identity). However, LGBT activists were unable to enter the venue since it was occupied with opposing individuals – Kazaks, nationalists, people in priest’s clothes etc. Police didn’t provide possibility for activists to get to the Marsovo field, 23 activists were arrested and delivered to police stations and accused with ‘hooliganism’.

The judge of Dzerzhinskiy district court closed the cases of majority of participants of the action. 3 cases of arrested individuals who had been sentenced to pay fine we closed by the city court. The last arrested individual, volunteer of ‘Comingout’, who filmed the event on Marsovo field, was found not guilty last Friday. Arrested participants were represented by the defender of LGBT organization ‘Comingout’.

All arrested activists have already requested district courts to find arrests illegal and compensate moral damage.

Along with LGBT activists arrested on October 12, 44 ‘orthodox’ attackers who disrupted the public event were delivered to police stations. It is unknown what has the courts decided on them.

Pictures: RIA Novosti.

Report on observance of the event of October 12 by Ombudsmen in St Petersburg you can read on the official website: http://ombudsmanspb.ru/12_10_13_otchet_o_nabljudenii_za_mitingom_v_edinom.html