In Saratov, a major city on the Volga River, a protocol for displaying banned symbols (Article 20.3, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences) was drawn up against photographer Nurlan Sultanov because of a portrait of the late politician Alexei Navalny, reports 164.ru.
According to law enforcement, on 16 February, the anniversary of the politician’s death, Sultanov came to lay flowers at the Vavilov monument and placed a black-and-white photograph of Navalny there. When police officers demanded the image be removed, the photographer agreed and took it away.
164.ru writes that Sultanov was detained on 14 March. After this, he spent almost two days in the police department.
The Frunzensky District Court of Saratov is currently considering his case. At the hearing, the photographer stated that the image of Navalny is not included on the list of extremist materials. Sultanov also recounted that after his arrest, law enforcement restricted his right to use his mobile phone and subjected him to moral and physical pressure.
Community police officer Evgeniya Zakharova, who drew up the protocol, told the court that she considered Navalny’s portrait to be a banned symbol because the organisations he led had been declared extremist.
Zakharova also told the court the circumstances of Sultanov’s detention. First, he was invited to the police station by phone, to which he declined. After that, a model (as the publication clarifies, a civilian) arranged a photoshoot with the photographer and paid a deposit. Instead of her, police officers turned up at the photographer’s studio and detained him.
18:00 Nurlan Sultanov was sentenced to five days of administrative arrest, reports portal 164.ru.
Judge Ekaterina Murzina of the Frunzensky District Court of Saratov found the activist guilty of distributing extremist symbolism. The court also ordered the confiscation of Sultanov’s “item of offence.” Taking into account the two days already spent in detention after his arrest, the photographer now has three more days to serve under arrest.
At the hearing, the activist’s defender, lawyer Kirill Rumyantsev, pointed out that Navalny’s photo “is not listed in” Moscow City Court decisions on symbols found to be extremist. He also noted that at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, where the politician is buried, “there’s also his photo, but no one has recognised this as extremist activity.”
17 March Details emerged about Sultanov’s detention. Reports Novaya Gazeta.
Police lured the photographer to a meeting with the help of a decoy model. She paid a deposit for a photoshoot. Sultanov was detained when he arrived at the studio for the shoot.
During the detention, police hit him in the solar plexus and on the back of the head, and spoke to him roughly to force a confession and the statements they wanted. Officers promised that after he confessed, Sultanov would “get away with just a fine.”
Sultanov did not plead guilty. Before the trial, he was held for two days in the Ministry of Internal Affairs police station. During that time, he was fed only once.
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Illustration: OVD-Info