 Source: HRO.org (info) According to a January 16 Interfax report citing Sergei Tsygankov, the official representative of the Moscow division of the Federal Prison Service, Sergei Mokhnatkin, a member of the opposition arrested for assaulting a police officer, has ended his hunger strike. On Wednesday, January 15, Sergei Mokhnatkin wrote a declaration that he has ended his hunger strike. Tsygankov added that he now “receives a full amount of food.” He noted that there is presently no threat to Mokhnatkin’s life and health. Mokhnatkin was transferred from his cell to a hospital to receive treatment on his shin. Lenta.ru reports that Anna Karetnikova, a member of the Moscow Public Oversight Commission, remarked in her blog that it was discovered that Mokhnatkin’s inflammation may be the result of a bruise he received during the Triumfalnaya Square protest on December 31, 2013. Mokhnatkin went on hunger strike on January 10 to protest the fact that he had been placed in a punishment cell at the Butyrsky pre-trial detention centre. Mokhnatkin ended up there because he refused to be photographed and fingerprinted. Sergei Mokhnatkin was detained at the Strategy 31 protest, which is held in defence of the 31st article of the Russian Constitution that guarantees freedom of assembly. Two criminal cases have been initiated against him for assaulting police officers. Mokhnatkin was previously convicted of a similar offence after a protest on December 31, 2009. At that time, he declared that he had gone to the defence of a woman who was being beaten by police. Mokhnatkin served a sentence of two and a half years in prison. |
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