17 December 2013

Source: HRO.org (info)

• Moscow city & Moscow region  Right of assembly  Access to justice  Harassment of activists

Polina Bogdanova, a witness for the defense in the trial of those detained in relation to alleged riots on Bolotnaya Square in May 2012, gave evidence in court asserting that OMON riot police officers beat one of the accused, Sergei Krivov. On 16 December, Dmitry Borko publicized on Twitter the testimony Bogdanova had given.

‘I saw Sergei Krivov (I know this now, everyone knows this), I saw the OMON officer strike him in the head with a baton. I was two metres away,’ she said.

To the question of how many times Krivov was hit in the head with the baton over the barrier, Bogdanova answered that it was at least three times: ‘He just turned away and covered his head.’

She also testified that the people who had come to the demonstration became exasperated that they had been deceived and shut out from the Square to which access had been agreed in advance, Kasparov.ru reports.

‘I saw how a journalist with a white-and-blue press badge was detained. They grabbed him by the hair, by his jacket, they treated him very roughly. He was dragged about five metres away, thrown onto the pavement and then beaten.’

Translated by Helen Corbett