On April 11 LGBT activists from Samara organized a demo devoted to the Day of silence. A week later law enforcement officers started to chase LGBT-activists: as a result, one of the activists was accused of participation in the “unauthorized” demonstration, defiance and distribution of leaflets while using “camouflage”.
5 activists took part in the demonstration – Vera Bochkareva, Alina Alieva, Alexandra Korneeva, Anastasia Osipenko and Denis Badov. Samara’s authorities refused to give a permission for the demonstration and that is why the activists (LGBT organization “Avers”, member of Russian LGBT Network) decided to have it in a local “Hyde park” (special place where one can have a public event without authority’s permission).
When activists covered their mouths with a tape police officers approached them and demanded to stop the demo immediately (there were 15 policemen in total there). They explained that there was nothing wrongful with the actions of activists. However, activists were asked to leave because they did not inform the authorities about the demo (according to law there was no need to inform anybody about the demo). Police officers recorded the data of the activists and they were forced to leave.
However, it was not the end of the story. A week later law enforcement officers started to chase the activists (including personal and official “invitations” to the police office for a talk and visiting activists’ parents). Two of them (who received the official requests to come to the police) went there. Alexandra Korneeva was accused for participation in the unauthorized demonstration, defiance and distribution of leaflets while using “camouflage” (tape on the mouth).
With the support of Russian LGBT Network “Avers” is going to defend the rights of the activists in the court. According to Maria Kozlovskaya, lawyer of Russian LGBT Network, “the event happened in a special place and activists cannot be persecuted. The official requests sent to some of them were not done properly. The actions of the police are lawful and there is an attempt to weigh upon activists”.
Source – Queer Russia
