Open Letter

Web-site: https://filonova.online
E-mail: [email protected]

We, members of the public, object to the arrest of Natalia Ivanovna Filonova, a journalist and human rights activist, an editor of the independent Petrovsk-Trans-Baikal newspaper «Despite Everything», the co-chair of the Trans-Baikal regional branch of the «Solidarity» movement.

Since November 17, she has been held under arrest in jail in Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, Russia, on falsified absurd charges. Filonova in protest declared a hunger strike immediately after being placed in a temporary holding facility before the trial, which took place on the night of November 15.

Natalia Filonova, a convinced pacifist, is accused of using violence against several police officers at once in parts 1 and 2 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which she faces up to 10 years in prison. It is to be mentioned that the arrested is already 61 years old.

According to investigators, she struck one of the police officers with a ballpoint pen. During the search, a pen that did not belong to the accused was seized from her son´s schoolbag and registered as an «instrument of crime». The medical examiner’s conclusion, which confirms that police officers caused bodily harm to Filonova herself, disappeared from the case.

Filonova’s lawyer, a human rights activist Nadezhda Nizovkina, is not allowed to participate in the case, despite Filonova’s protests and hunger strike.

On December 1, Galina Sergeevna Kuznetsova, the judge of Ulan-Ude Sovetsky District Court, extended the defendant’s stay in custody until February 6, 2023. This violates not only the rights of Filonova but also the rights of a disabled child with serious mental disabilities and heart disease. The reason for the change in the measure of restraint was a force majeure situation, namely, the emergency hospitalization of her husband and the disappearance of a disabled child. Because of these events, she was forced to leave home to search for the child, but the investigator refused her permission to leave for a short-term trip.

We, friends, colleagues, and associates, created a website https://filonova.online/ to cover all the illegal actions of the authorities against the journalist, human rights defender, mother of a disabled child and a member of the anti-war movement Filonova Natalia Ivanovna.

We ask you to provide any assistance in resolving this situation.

Sincerely,

Zurtan Khaltarov, political emigrant, Buryad Gürün Foundation
Nadezhda Nizovkina, lawyer, human rights defender
Tatyana Stetsura, lawyer, human rights activist
Dmitry Bairov, YouTube channel «Republic of Buryatia»
Igor Timofeev, entrepreneur
Lyudmila Chebunina, political emigrant
Alexey Karnaukhov, social activist
Petr Dondukov, political emigrant, programmer
Vladimir Shafirov, blogger, telegram channel «Real Buryatia»
Tatyana Osipova, YouTube channel «Baikal News»
Ayan Bayande, blogger, YouTube channel «Igor Profsoyuz»
Svetlana Ostapchuk, teacher
Artem Burlov, blogger, film director
Ekaterina Morland, freelance translator, Buryats of Spain Foundation
Raisa Zubareva, Free Yakutia Foundation
Vasily Matenov, Asians of Russia Foundation
Inga Sudzilovskaya, representative of the Belarusian opposition
Rinchin Gomboev, political emigrant, entrepreneur
Baldan Lama (Bazarov), clergyman
Marina Khankhalaeva, opera singer
Vladimir Khamutaev, Congress of the Buryat People
Bair Tsyrenov, film director, blogger

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