EWNC activist and journalist put under arrest in Sochi

The court in Sochi today ruled to arrest EWNC activist Vladimir Kimaev for three days, following the incident on June 29 in the village of Chereshnya near the Sochi airport. Kimaev's court hearing follows the hearing regarding local journalist Anna Gritsevich, who was also sentenced to three days of arrest on Monday.

The court in Sochi today ruled to arrest EWNC activist Vladimir Kimaev for three days, following the incident on June 29 in the village of Chereshnya near the Sochi airport. Kimaev's court hearing follows the hearing regarding local journalist Anna Gritsevich, who was also sentenced to three days of arrest on Monday.

During the incident Kimaev and Gritsevich were monitoring a waste dump made of debris from the recent catastrophic flooding. Local residents in Chereshnya were unhappy about the waste near their homes and invited EWNC and the media to look into the problem. Kimaev and Gritsevich were filming the dump as residents were waiting for the arrival of local authorities, but arriving police accused Kimaev and Gritsevich of staging an illegal demonstration and further pressured some local residents to sign false testimonies against them.

Gritsevich further was detained and injured by police while carrying out her journalistic assignment. Both hearings had little to do with justice, as the judge refused to consider any arguments in favor of Kimaev, even refusing to view video footage from the incident. The case against the activist was base on testimony of a false witness, so Kimaev's lawyer requested to hear this person testimony again, but this too was denied. The request to film the hearing was also denied.

The judge ruled Kimaev guilty of refusing to obey police and sentenced him to three days in a detention center in Sochi's Adler. Anna Gritsevich received the same sentence Monday.