Russian district attorneys have asked a judge to sentence the co-chair of the independent election display Golos to six years in prison on charges of running an unfavorable organization, the exiled news site Mediazonareported Monday.Grigory Melkonyants wasarrested in August 2023 on accusations of working with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), aMontenegro-based civil society group.Prosecutors declare that Golos is almost a structural department of ENEMO, which Russiablacklisted as undesirable in 2021.
ENEMO, which integrates election displays from 18 Central and Eastern European countries, denies the claims.Melknoyants has actually denied the charges, which carry an optimum penalty of 6 years in prison.We are, naturally, stunned by the requested punishment, Mediazonaquoted defense lawyer Yulia Ostrovskaya as telling the Basmanny District Court judge in Moscow.Founded in 2000, Golos had actually denounced declared voting abnormalities in Russias 2011 parliamentary elections, the 2012 governmental vote, which saw President Vladimir Putin go back to the Kremlin, and the 2020 constitutional referendum that paved the way for the Russian leader to extend his guideline to 2036.
Golos trains election observers and also runs a hotline through which voters can report election violations.Russias Justice Ministry identified Golos a foreign agent in 2021.