Lawyer Chikov: Khovansky complained to the ECHR about the illegality of the choice of detention
Photo: Alexander Galperin / RIA Novosti
Blogger Yuri Khovansky, arrested on charges of justifying terrorism, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). This was announced by the head of the human rights organization “Agora” Pavel Chikov in his Telegram channel.
“He complains about the illegality of the choice of detention, its duration, about the unregistered detention in the Investigative Committee on the night of June 8-9, 2021,” Chikov wrote. In addition, according to the human rights activist, Khovansky told the ECHR that the requirement for an urgent review of the legality of the guard was violated in his regard.
According to the lawyer, the blogger claims that the consideration of five of his similar complaints cannot be considered urgent, since from the moment these complaints were received by the courts of first instance and until the consideration of the St. Petersburg City Court took from 23 to 39 days.
“The court in Strasbourg has repeatedly recognized the length of the appeal of the guards as a violation of the Convention (Article 5), considering the period of 17 days to be excessive,” Chikov added.
Khovanskiy was arrested in June 2021. The blogger was charged under Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism”). The reason was the performance by Khovansky of a song about the taking of hostages during the musical “Nord-Ost” in 2002. Two videos with the blogger's performance appeared on YouTube on the profile of an anonymous user named Yuri in 2020. The investigation claims that the video was recorded in 2018, Khovansky and his defense insist that he performed the song in 2012, before the appearance of part 2 of Article 205.2 in the Criminal Code.
