Prosecutor seeks 6 years in jail for independent Russian election monitor

A Russian prosecutor on Monday requested six years in prison for Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of an independent monitoring group that has criticised the conduct of Russian elections.

Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023, accused of organising the work of an "undesirable organisation". He has pleaded innocent at his trial.

Prosecutor Ekaterina Frolova demanded that Melkonyants be given the maximum prison term and banned from public activity for 10 years. The defence said investigators had failed to prove their case.

Melkonyants said that in the space of 21 months he had been held in 12 cells, sharing them with a total of more than 100 fellow inmates.

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"Going through this test, I became stronger and did not lose faith in the cause to which I dedicated my whole life," he said in his closing speech.

The verdict is due to be delivered on Wednesday.

Melkonyants is co-chair of the Golos monitoring group which first angered the authorities by publicising evidence of what it said was fraud in a 2011 parliamentary election that sparked opposition protests, and then in the presidential vote that returned President Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012.

Human rights campaigners say the case against Melkonyants is part of a much wider crackdown on civil society that has intensified since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Rights group OVD-Info says more than 1,600 people are currently imprisoned on political grounds. The Kremlin says it does not comment on individual cases but that Russia needs to uphold its laws and protect itself against subversive activity.