Voting for the nominees of the award named by the murdered politician Boris Nemtsov was launched on the website of "Novaya Gazeta". A human rights defender Sergey Mokhnatkin is among 30 applicants nominated "For a civil courage". Mohnatkin is serving his sentence in the Arkhangelsk prison camp for violence against police officers.
On April 6, Sergei Mokhnatkin hold the third result among other nominees, more than 13% of the votes was given for him. A former Karelian prisoner Ildar Dadin (nominated "For fortitude and civil courage") and an opposition politician Aleksey Navalny ("For leadership and selfless political struggle") lead in the voting.
The chairman of Ryazan Memorial Society [human rights defenders] Andrey Blinushov is also nominated for the Nemtsov Prize "For fidelity and fortitude".
Five finalists will be chosen out of all the nominees via Internet voting, further the winner will be chosen out of that five by the members of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation [for Freedom] council. The applicants have been put in nomination for the award by 15 civil society organizations and the laureate of the 2016 prize Lev Shlosberg.
In 2010, Sergei Mokhnatkin was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for using violence against a policeman during an opposition rally on Triumfalnaya Square in Moscow on December 31. On April 23, 2012, President Dmitry Medvedev pardoned him along with other 29 political prisoners. Mohnatkin became the only pardoned of them who did not plead his guilty.
On April 3, 2015 the Moscow City Court found Sergei Mohnatkin guilty of beating two policemen during a protest action on December 31, 2013 at Triumfalnaya Square in Moscow and sentenced him to 4.5 years in prison. Mohnatkin participated in a rally as a special correspondent for the newspaper "Za prava cheloveka” [“For Human Rights"]. On December 14, 2016, it was reported that the prisoner Mokhnatkin was being subjected to violence by members of predetention centre #2 of the Arkhangelsk Oblast.
On March 20, 2017, the Kotlas court raised his custodial penalty by two years for "disorganizing the work of the prison camp."
Сергей Мохнаткин — лауреат международной премии Московской Хельсинкской группы «За мужество, проявленное в защите прав человека».
Sergei Mokhnatkin is a laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group International Award "For Courage in Protecting Human Rights".
