A Saint Petersburg court has ordered the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vasilievsky Island district to apologize to lawyer Yana Nepovinnova. The ruling, secured on June 2nd, stems from an incident on February 24, 2022, when Nepovinnova was denied access to her clients at a police station.
The legal battle began in December 2022, when Nepovinnova, backed by the Saint Petersburg Bar Association, filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the police’s actions. She argued that she was prevented from providing legal assistance to fifteen detainees, despite being able to see them through a window and presenting written statements from the detainees themselves. The court decision highlighted that Nepovinnova was denied access for over eight hours, purportedly based on the orders of the head of the 16th department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vasilievsky Island district, and that procedural documents were prepared against her clients without her involvement.
In June 2023, the Vasilievsky Island District Court had already recognized the illegality of the actions of the 16th police department officers. Consequently, Nepovinnova formally requested an apology from the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vasilievsky Island district, citing the Federal Law “On Police,” which mandates apologies for citizens whose rights have been violated by police officers.
Despite this, the situation became further complicated. In April 2024, Nepovinnova received a written apology, but it came from the legal counsel of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vasilievsky Island district, not from the officers involved or their superiors. Subsequently, she appealed to the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, requesting an official investigation and demanding that the appropriate apology be issued.
However, in May 2024, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs “revoked” the previous apology, asserting that there were no grounds for it since Nepovinnova’s rights as a lawyer, rather than as a citizen, had been violated. This led Nepovinnova to file a new lawsuit with the Primorsky District Court, seeking to have the police inaction declared illegal and to compel the officers and their superiors to apologize to her within a month. She emphasized that the initial apology was made by the wrong person and that an apology must be an individual act.
The court ultimately ruled in favor of Nepovinnova, obligating Vladimir Ilnitsky, the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vasilievsky Island district, to offer an official apology. This decision has been hailed by the Saint Petersburg Bar Association as an important victory for the legal community and a deterrent against future violations of lawyers’ professional rights.