‘Golos’ has been searched, the electronic equipment and documents of the movement leaders have been seized

At 7 a.m. on July 7, the apartments of the co-chairmen of the board of ‘Golos’ Movement Grigory Melkonyants and Roman Udot, as well as the executive director of the IPF ‘Golos’ Tatiana Troynova were searched. According to Melkonyants, then the law enforcement officers are going to move to the Movement office in Moscow.

The Lawyer Olga Gnezdilova, who was present at the apartment of Melkonyants during the search, told ‘Vedomosti’ that the search was authorized by Samara court and carried out by the investigator for particularly important cases representing the Khimki City Investigative Department of the Moscow Region Office of Investigative Committee S.Y. Tomchyk. The reason for this – a tax case initiated this winter against the head of IPF ‘Golos-Volga’ Lyudmila Kuzmina.

‘In Samara, the initiation of criminal case was rather unsuccessful; in the near future it will probably be closed. However, before it is closed, a decision was made, in my opinion, to get closer to ‘Golos’. They tend to extract more information from our phones, notebooks and computers. The electronic equipment was seized. No criminal offense was committed in Samara. Moscow counterparts are not involved in the case. This is, of course, a kind of way to put a pressure. They seek to hinder our work – election observation’, - said Grigory Melkonyants.

We would like to remind that a criminal case was brought against the director of the Fund ‘Golos-Volga’ Ludmila Kuzmina in winter 2015 for tax evasion. In March, her property was seized. Civic activists believe that the case was fabricated, and in February they launched a campaign supporting Kuzmina. On 28 March 2015, the statute of limitations expired in this case, therefore the corresponding application was submitted, but the request for closure of the case against Kuzmina was rejected, as the newspaper ‘Vedomosti’ informed. ‘This Samara case falls under two grounds to grant amnesty, but the case is still not closed by now’, - said the lawyer Ramil Ahmetgaliev.

UPD: Lawyer Olga Gnezdilova said the following: ‘The investigators from Moscow arrived to the Grigory apartment in Khimki at 6:45 a.m. First they told he was flooding neighbours, then they tried to break the doors, brought their witnesses and finally broke in. As a lawyer of Grigory I was denied access to the premises where the search was carried out. The investigators seized all paper documents, all the electronic equipment, data storage devices. Now they are heading to the ‘Golos’ office close to the ‘Baumanskaya’ (metro station in Moscow Metro).

The denial of access to a lawyer during the search is breach of law. Gnezdilova stated that the movement ‘Golos’ is going to file a lawsuit against the searches conducted in the apartments of ‘Golos’ representatives and in the Moscow office: ‘We intend to appeal the searches, as we believe that it was illegal and the law was breached. We believe that it was a way of trying to obstruct the work of independent election observers’.

Grigory Melkonyants about the search in his apartment: ‘A doorbell ring woke me up at 6 a.m. I went to the door, looked through the peephole and saw a woman dressed in leopard print jumpsuit. I asked: ‘Who is there?’ I was answered that she was a neighbour and that I caused a flood in several floors. Half-awake I went to check the pipes. Everything was intact. The intensity of doorbell rings has increased, moreover somebody started simultaneously kicking the door and violently jerking the door handle. I went to the door and said that all the equipment at my place was intact. She continued insisting to immediately open the door. I understand that the situation is very worrying: an unfamiliar neighbour, there is no flood, and an unidentified person tries to break into my apartment at 6 a.m. The peephole was covered and the door was broken... The role of a neighbour was played by the witness A.V. Korotych’- described the visit of the investigators in his Facebook post Melkonyants.

About the search: ‘They were searching for something in English, related to international affairs ... not related to Samara affairs’. Grigory also said that the inventory procedures were not followed: ‘Blue folder. 30 pages. That is it. That was how they seized everything. Of course, afterwards anything could be written down next to the ‘30 pages’, - said Melkonyants.

Olga Gnezdilova on ‘Facebook’ announced that the investigator Fiodorov Mikhail Sergeyevich and some persons holding camera and microphone of ‘Lifenews’ were present during the search in the office of ‘Golos’. The investigator said that he would not like to be filmed, but it was not him who gave an order. The investigator denied access to the premises to ‘Lifenews’.

An activist Maria Muskevich shared a video showing the beginning of the search in the office of ‘Golos’.

To the question of Vasiliy Weisenberg, ‘Golos’ short-term election observation expert, how so fast the ‘Lifenews’ correspondents arrived to the office of movement, the journalists answered that the information was shared in social networks.

‘The owner of the premises or his representative arrived. The owner, the investigator, our lawyer and two witnesses entered the ‘Golos’ office. At the moment, it seems that the so-called investigative actions are carried out in there’, - said Vitaly Averin, the representative of the movement.

The Fund ‘Public Verdict’ reported that Roman Udot and the lawyer representing the Fund Vasily Kushnir drove to the territorial department of Investigative Committee located in the Street Krasnokazarmennaya No. 9. ‘During the search the computers and documents were seized. The investigator from Moscow was searching the office on behalf of investigators from Samara Prosecutor’s Office’, - as the Fund posted on its Facebook wall. The investigator did not present any necessary documents confirming the authorization to conduct the search and seize the property. The investigator refused to show his employee ID.

‘I see you have friends in the United States’- the investigator said while checking the business cards obtained by ‘Golos’. Witnesses are happy to find a CNN business card – look, what I found!’, - Olga Gnezdilova informed from the office where the search is ongoing.

Several young persons - journalists and activists – gathered next to the office.

‘The witnesses are, of course, ‘Eshniki’. Here is what to do with it’, - posted on Facebook wall Gnezdilova. – ‘A witness looked through a window and saw the young people who gathered next to the ‘Golos’ office: ‘They will put up tents?’ Psychological trauma is detected’.

‘I have filed an application for copying information from seized equipment’ - announced the lawyer.

According to the ‘Public Verdict’, during the interrogation of Roman Udot, he decided not to exercise the right provisioned in the Article 51 of the Constitution and did not refuse to testify. He told the investigator that he had nothing to hide about his personal and ‘Golos’ activities, as they are legal.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. Roman approached the office where the search still was ongoing. ‘The investigator saw Roman Udot on the screen of tiny CCTV camera and identified him immediately saying he checked his look on Internet’, said Gnezdilova.

Udot reported that all electronic equipment was seized, including telephones. The decision on investigative actions dated 15th of May, 2015 can be appealed in 10 days.

Well-known Russian human rights activists Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Valery Borshchev, Yuri Vdovin, Svetlana Gannushkina, Sergei Kovalev, Lev Ponomarev and Lilia Shibanova expressed the support to their colleagues from the movement ‘Golos’ advocating for the rights of voters. ‘We consider the action against ‘Golos’ as an attempt to conceal the preparation for the large-scale fraud, referring to the ‘bloody election’ in Balashikha, as an example of such activities’, wrote human rights activists in their statement.

Roman Udot speaks about the search and interrogation.

‘The witnesses affectionately call the investigator Misha and watch on the phone NTV video about a search in the apartment of Grigory Melkonyants’, - posted on Facebook wall Olga Gnezdilova.

Olga Gnezdilova: ‘Witnesses got tired and fell asleep’

Olga Gnezdilova submitted a petition requiring dismissal of the witnesses.

The lawyer regularly reports on the progress of the search. ‘A witness refers to persons whose documents were found in the office of ‘Golos’ as ‘recruited’, - she wrote at 6 p.m. – ‘The witness reads the report ‘Putin. War’. He asked whether he could get a business card of Yarosh!’ An hour later: ‘Right now the witnesses are watching the ‘LifeNews’ video on the phone. They are very happy’.

At approximately 7 p.m. the search was over. ‘The investigator calls for the police support as there is lots of stuff to carry and people stand in the street’, - writes Gnezdilova.

The statement of the Civil Society Forum organizing committee and experts in support of the ‘Golos’: ‘The exercise of legal proceedings in such cases is excessive and redundant. We believe the incident has triggered an extremely dangerous precedent and we demand to stop the persecution of observers representing the civic movement’.