The Leninsky district court of Novorossiysk has denied parole to the political prisoner Darya Poliudova.

This has been reported by the lawyer for Public Verdict Foundation, Irina Biriukova. As grounds for this the Court pointed out that Poliudova, "has not mended her ways, nor has she admitted her guilt and her crimes". Human rights defenders intend to appeal today's ruling by the court, including in relation to procedural irregularities.

In today's proceedings the prison colony presented testimonials and conclusions of the Commission that were produced for January’s trial on commuting the sentence (which the court then also denied Poliudova). In response to a question by the defence counsel, representatives of the correctional facility said that during this period, "nothing has changed, so there are no new testimonials". A prison colony representative practically admitted that the testimonial had been copied from the previous case because, "the person's character hasn’t changed."

Darya Poliudova was convicted in December 2015 for ironic posts on social media (calling for people to take part in marches for the 'federalisation of Kuban'). The court characterised Poliudova's statements as calls to commit extremism. The activist was sentenced to two years at an open prison colony.

Poliudova turned to the Public Verdict Foundation with complaints that she was facing pressure from the administration of the prison colony, as well as harassment, to which other prisoners are subjecting her with the complicity of the administration.

Translated by Lindsay Munford