Moscow court sentences Russian election monitor Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison for running ‘undesirable’ organization
A Moscow court has sentenced Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election-monitoring group Golos, to five years in prison on charges of organizing the activities of an “undesirable” organization, Mediazona reported.
The court also barred Melkonyants from engaging in public or civic activity for nine years following his release.
Since Melkonyants has been in custody since August 2023, and the court credited each day in pre-trial detention as a day and a half toward his sentence, he has effectively already “served” just over two and a half years, according to Mediazona.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of six years in prison.
“I’m not losing heart — and neither should you!” Melkonyants told supporters in the courtroom after the verdict was announced.
