Feedback Saint-Petersburg city court considered an appeal against refusal to accord the march on February 19: during the session shortcomings in work of Committee on Law, Order and Security were exposed.
April 24 in Saint-Petersburg city court an appeal against verdict of Smolninsky district court, which recognized refusal to accord the march on memory day of anti-fascists Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova, was considered. The representative of Committee on Law, Order and Security, answering questions from judicial board, actually admitted that according to present regulations it is impossible to hand in a notification of march on 19 January in time.
The judges took notice of the fact that there is no special service on duty to accept notifications, which can provide procedure of giving notifications in time even in cases of ‘vacations’ and holidays (analogous services exist in other cities), and thus can provide exercise of right of freedom of assembly. The representative of Committee explained that decision to found such service isn’t still made and can be made only by Government of Saint-Petersburg. Also the judges of appeal instance, in contrast to the judge of Smolninsky court, took notice of the fact that in Moscow in the same situation the march was accorded.
In spite of exposed shortcomings in work on receiving notifications by Committee on Law, Order and Security, the verdict of Smolninsky court was not changed. When reason of the decision is received, it is planned to prepare an appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as there was exposed lack of correspondence between norms of federal law ‘On assemblies, meetings, demonstrations, processions and picketing’ of Constitution of the Russian Federation (article 31) and legal positions concerning priority in implementation of human rights and freedoms in organization of work of state organs.