Prague, July 12 (CTK) – Russian student Igor Shevtsov has appealed the Czech police Immigration Office’s decision that he be expelled from the country for five years as his residence permit has expired and a court found him guilty of assisting in spraying slogans on a Prague prison wall, his lawyer has told CTK.
The verdict, expelling Shevtsov for two years, was previously ruled on Shevtsov by the High Court in Prague, but in the meantime, the Supreme Court (NS) backed Shevtsov and cancelled the verdict. In the following administrative proceedings, Prague’s relevant district authority decided that Shevtsov not even committed any misdemeanour.
Shevtsov’s lawyer Pavel Cizinsky said the police, in their decision to expel Shevtsov, available on Antifenix.cz, did not take into account the cancellation of the original verdict by the NS. He called the decision absurd.
Cizinsky also said Shevtsov had stayed in the Czech Republic illegally for a few days only, from February 18 until February 23, 2017, when administrative proceedings about his expulsion were launched, making his stay in the country legal again.
Apart from the court verdict on Shevtsov, though cancelled in the meantime, the police argue that he seriously and intentionally breaches the public peace. They mention Shevtsov’s interview with the DVTV broadcaster in which he said earlier this year that he wants to be dangerous to “repressive institutions.”
Appealing the police decision, Shevtsov referred to the social ties he has established in Czechia and to his current studies at a Prague university.
The police said he can interrupt the studies and resume them after his expulsion period ends.
Shevtsov’s argument that he might face persecution in Russia is a purely expedient allegation, the police say.
The police would not comment on the case, citing the closed character of the administrative proceedings dealing with foreigners’ expulsion.
Shevtsov, who spent three months in custody after his detention, was also accused of attacking then defence minister Martin Stropnicky’s (ANO) house with Molotov cocktails in June 2015. The accusation was not proved true, however.
A court convicted him of patrolling the site while others sprayed anarchist slogans on the wall of the Ruzyne prison in Prague in 2015.
Pleading not guilty, Shevtsov said he was only shooting the perpetrators with his camera. The NS eventually supported his arguments and cancelled the original court verdict. The Justice Ministry had to apologise to Shevtsov and pay 360,000 crowns as compensation to him for unlawful prosecution and stay in custody. In reaction, Shevtsov filed a lawsuit demanding compensation worth 1.3 million crowns, according to the Czech judicial database.
