The court left the defendant in the DOXA case with an appointed attorney in violation of the law on the Bar

The Justice of the Peace in Moscow left Natalya Tyshkevich, a defendant in the DOXA case, in the trial, informs DOXA. At the preliminary hearing, the judge summoned Natalya Rudykh, an appointed attorney for the accused. The defense contested this decision and filed a motion to withdraw the defense counsel, which was supported by Rudykh herself. Despite this, judge Anastasia Tatarulia approved Rudykh as a defender.

The judge’s actions violate the Law on Advocate Activity, which prohibits double defense. Tyshkevich already has a lawyer, Alyaksandr Aldaev, who has been representing her interests since the initiation of the criminal case.

On the morning of April 14, four journalists of the DOXA student publication – Armen Aramyan, Alla Gutnikova, Vladimir Metelkin and Natasha Tyshkevich – were searched. After that, they were taken for interrogation to the Investigative Committee, and then to the court, which appointed them a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions with strict restrictions. In fact, the accused can only leave their homes for interrogations and for two hours a day for walks.

Journalists are accused of involving minors in actions dangerous for them (Article 151.2 of the Criminal Code). The criminal case was opened because of the video DOXA, in which the members of the publication appealed to students and urged them not to be afraid of threats of expulsion for participating in rallies. Subsequently, the editors of the magazine removed this video at the request of Roskomnadzor.

Under the same article, a case was initiated against the former head of the headquarters network of Alexei Navalny, Leonid Volkov. According to the investigation, after Volkov published the video “How to get Navalny out of prison”, DOXA employees, against the background of active discussions on social networks, had an intention “to support the above calls and create their own publications.” Initially, Volkov and the DOXA editors were in the same case, later the editors’ case was separated into a separate proceeding.

Initially, DOXA editors were accused of involving two or more minors in dangerous activities (clause “a”, part 2 of article 151.2 of the Criminal Code) via the Internet (clause “c” of part 2 of article 151.2 of the Criminal Code). Later, an accusation was added of the commission of a crime by a group of persons (clause “b”, part 2 of article 151.2 of the Criminal Code).

On May 28, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation also opened a criminal case of libel against an investigator (part 2 of article 298.1 of the Criminal Code) against DOXA editor Volodya Metelkin for talking about pressure and harassment from investigator Yekaterina Zhizhmanova, who was then conducting his case.

On April 29, Memorial Human Rights Center recognized DOXA editors as political prisoners.