Police achieves revision of case of Kuban advocate on army discrediting

A Krasnodar court has again received the case of Vitaly Katsko, an advocate, about discrediting the Russian Army in his social network posts. Earlier, the court ruled to stop the case, but the police have challenged the ruling.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Vitaly Katsko was charged with discrediting Russian militaries by placing pacifist posters on the Instagram*. Katsko himself claimed that he had deleted his statements even before the law on discrediting the army was enacted. Back in May, the court decided to terminate his administrative case, taking into account the advocate's arguments that the law should have no retroactive force.

Now, the Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar has again received the case on discrediting the army against Vitaly Katsko, the human rights project "OVD-Info"** has reported.

The court's earlier ruling to terminate the case was challenged by the police; and the protocol was returned for a new consideration.

Vitaly Katsko has stated that he will petition for terminating the case. "The limitation statute has already expired; and I file a motion to dismiss the case on this basis," he has explained.

*On March 21, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities of the "Meta" Company (that owns the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) in Russia in connection with extremist activities.

**By decision of the Russia Ministry of Justice, the project was included into the list of unregistered public associations performing the functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 1, 2022 at 11:51 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.