Prague, July 20 (CTK) – A Czech appeals court cancelled yesterday the expulsion verdict for Igor Shevtsov, a Russian student who looked out while another man was spraying inscriptions on a prison wall, since it found the verdict too tough and banned him from public rallies for three years instead.
The new verdict has taken effect.
Shevtsov pleads innocent. He said he had only videoed the activities near the Ruzyne prison in Prague earlier this year.
The appeals court upheld the lower-level court’s opinion that Shevtsov assisted in the damaging of other people’s property.
However, the judges said the two-year expulsion imposed on him was too tough a sentence.
“He has a Czech stay permit, he has been duly studying at a university where they assess him as a very good student. Naturally, this is an important circumstance,” judge Petr Pisa said.
“If the expulsion sentence were imposed on him [Shevtsov], it would be a significant intervention in his life and studies,” Pisa added.
In his appeal, Shevtsov, 21, pointed out that the expulsion would probably prevent him from completing his ethnology studies at Prague’s Charles University.
Furthermore, he has social contacts in the Czech Republic which he would lose if expelled, he said.
A strong group of friends and fellow-students appeared in the courtroom yesterday to support him.
The new verdict bans Shevtsov from attending anarchist “demonstrations, marches and public rallies” for three years.
Shevtsov was originally also suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails on the house of Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO), but the court acquitted him of the charges in April, citing the lack of evidence.
During the criminal proceedings, when Shevtsov faced possible expulsion, support for him was voiced by the Charles University rector, MEP Jaromir Stetina, philosopher Jan Sokol and some human rights groups that warned against a possible persecution of Shevtsov on the part of Russia.
rtj/dr/kva
