Activist surprised by being summoned to burnt-out courthouse in Sochi

Vladimir Atamanchuk, an activist from Sochi, was summoned to a court hearing on his case to be held in a court building closed after a fire.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on October 23, 72-year-old Vladimir Atamanchuk received an SMS notification from the Lazarevsky District Court that a hearing on his criminal case on contempt of court was scheduled for November 23.

“Knowing that the court building was on fire, I decided to go there and make sure that the trial would be held in the burned-out building. But there was no one there, and the front door was boarded up,” the activist reported.

“I believe that the judge is deliberately sending me such summonses in order to aggravate my guilt for ‘contempt of court.’ Earlier, he pronounced an absolutely unlawful decision, accusing me of defamation, which I intend to challenge at a cassation court,” Vladimir Atamanchuk wrote in his complaint addressed to the chairman of the Krasnodar Territorial Court.

Vladimir Atamanchuk plans to take a photo with the summon he received against the backdrop of a boarded-up door of the courthouse so that he will not be accused of “failure to appear in court and contempt of court.”

Let us remind you that the case on contempt of court was instituted against Vladimir Atamanchuk after a complaint from a victim in the case on defamation. The activist was not informed of the exact words that became the reason for his prosecution.