The St. Petersburg court found it illegal not to allow a lawyer to the detainees

The Krasnogvardeysky District Court of St. Petersburg concluded that the lawyer's non-admission to the detainees was illegal. The incident occurred in one of the police stations after a rally in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in April last year.

On that day, lawyer Sergei Podolsky arrived at the department where the detainees were, but was forced to wait all night to meet with them. In OP No. 26, he was told that a "Fortress" plan had been introduced in the department, so the human rights defender could not go inside.

According to the lawyer, the police officers themselves did not comply with their plan, allowing themselves to go out to receive food from couriers.

Only in the morning the lawyer was able to file a complaint about the incident.

Then he decided to challenge the incident in court and filed a lawsuit last summer. The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of St. Petersburg was declared as a defendant, and among the evidence and justification of his position, Podolsky presented an act of violation of the rights of a lawyer and a video recording on which the fact of non-admission was recorded.

The court case, after its initiation, had a positive effect on the situation, and lawyers were allowed to meet with detainees at the 26th Police Station. According to Podolsky, the ruling issued by the court may have a positive impact on the work of other police departments, «ZAKS.RU» reports.