A criminal case against Grigory Melkonyants, co-chairman of the Golos observers' movement, was initiated after a report by Aleksey Okopny, a well-known employee of Center E. Lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told about this on YouTube, a retelling of his speech was published by Sota.
“The materials that the investigator submitted to the court for choosing a measure of restraint contain quite interesting documents,” the defender began. — So, for example, the collection of materials on Grigory Melkonyants directly began <…> in May of this year, and the foundation <…> served as a report of our old Moscow acquaintance Lesha Ulybka — Alexei Okopny.
The report by Okopny and two of his colleagues spoke of the involvement of Golos in the European association of observers ENEMO, which in 2021 the Prosecutor General's Office recognized as an «undesirable» organization. Golos then suspended membership in the movement. “In this way, the material was accumulated quite a long time ago, lay idle for some time, but suddenly on the 17th of [August] it was decided to initiate a criminal case,” Mikhail Biryukov described the preparation of the investigation.
August 17 at least 15 election observers in several regions of Russia who were associated with Golos were searched in connection with the Melkonyants case. He was accused of organizing the work of the «undesirable» movement ENEMO in Russia. As Biryukov noted, the investigation considered two speeches of the observer at meetings in the CEC as evidence of this.
«Your elections are a farce!». From the history of article 141 of the Criminal Code (obstruction of the work of election commissions)
Police officer Alexei Okopny, due to his participation in the persecution of activists and observations at opposition events, became one of the most recognizable employees of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow (Center «E» ). The Moscow National Bolsheviks accused Okopny of involvement in the murder of his ally Yuri Chervochkin in Serpukhov in 2007. Togo, before the March of Dissent, was beaten to death in the street by unknown people, they were never found. anti-extremism police department of Moscow Alexei Okopny at work #trench pic.twitter.com/oFWQNv4T
— Shpikinfo (@shpikinfo) November 21, 2012