MOSCOW PRIDE ORGANISER CHARGED WITH SLANDER
Nikolai Alekseev, the organiser of Moscow Gay Pride, will be in court soon to face charges of slander and insult following his “outing” of a former State Duma (Parliament) deputy on live national television.
Prosecutors have confirmed the charges against Nikolai Alekseev based on Articles 129 (slander) and 130 (insult) of the Russian Criminal Code.
On June 21, Alekseev made history through the first ever outing of a gay politician in Russia. Speaking on the NTV channel’s talk show K baryeru!, he called deputy Alexander Chuev from Fair Russia party a “gay, coward and hypocrite.”
Six days later, deputy Chuev sent a complaint to the General Prosecutor’s department asking it to check if Mr. Alekseev breached articles 129, 130 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code.
On July 31, a criminal case against Alekseev was officially initiated. The investigation was prolonged several times due to delays in the interrogation of witnesses and linguists.
It is expected that the criminal case against Moscow pride organiser will be sent to court shortly. The court will give the final verdict on whether Alekseev committed any crimes under Russian law.
“The criminal case against me was conducted with multiple breaches of legislation and the investigators failed to find any proof of my guilt,” Alekseev said on Wednesday.
“Until the court hearing I have no right to disclose the details of the case and the proof that is [to be] used against me. But during the court process many details will become known,” he added.
Alekseev went on to say that “the court has no other option than to declare me innocent. Though in the current condition of pressure from authorities I cannot exclude that the decision of the court will not be fair… In any case we are ready to lead this case up to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.”
Chuev failed to get re-elected in recent elections and is now no longer a deputy of the Duma.
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