Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election guard dog Golos, was sentenced Wednesday to 5 years in prison on charges of participating in the activities of an unfavorable organization.Judge Evgeniya Nikolaeva of Moscows Basmanny District Court found Melkonyants guilty of working with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), a Montenegro-based NGO blacklisted by Russian authorities in 2021.
In addition to the jail term, the judge barred Melkonyants from engaging in public activity for 9 years following his release, the exiled news outlet Mediazona reported.Prosecutors had sought the maximum six-year sentence, declaring that Golos worked as a structural department of ENEMO.
Both Melkonyants and ENEMO, a coalition of election observers from 18 Central and Eastern European nations, rejected the affiliation.Melkonyants was jailed in August 2023.
Judge Nikolaeva stated the time he invested in pre-trial detention would count towards his general sentence.Dont worry, Im not dissuaded.
You shouldnt be either, Melkonyants told fans in court following the verdict.His legal representative Mikhail Biryukov told press reporters that he and his client will appeal the sentencing.Founded in 2000, Golos has long drawn the Kremlins ire for recording election offenses, including throughout Russias disputed 2011 parliamentary vote, the 2012 governmental election that returned President Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin, along with the 2020 constitutional referendum that extended the Russian leaders guideline to 2036.
Golos trains election observers and runs a hotline for reporting offenses.
Russias Justice Ministry designated it a foreign agent in 2021.