Memorial Defends Those Detained during 6 May Events

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Human Rights Center Memorial

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Jul 3, 2012, 8:30:17 AM7/3/12

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Memorial Defends Those Detained during 6 May Events

On 6 May 2012 during protests in Moscow over 650 people were detained, the vast majority without any legal basis. They were detained at the Moscow OVD (Department of Internal Affairs) from one to two days. Human Rights Centre Memorial played an active role in gathering information about the detentions and helping the detainees.

We offered consultations to many of the detainees and defended a several in court.

In her capacity as representative of Human Rights Centre Memorial, lawyer Elizaveta Prikhodina defended Nadir Fattyakhetdinov and Evgeni Frumkin in the Municipal Court No. 100 and Zamoskvoretsky District Court.

Unfortunately, judge Sibirev of Municipal Court No. 100 placed the condemnation of the detainees on the conveyer belt, completely relying on the testimony written on carbon paper of police officers, apparently given as false evidence against that delivered to the court. Sibirev, in open text, announced an intention to give minimal punishment to those who pleaded guilty and did not take up defense counsel, and conversely, to give maximum punishment to those who upheld their innocence. In spite of this, Fattyakhetdinov and Frumkin considered it necessary to seek legal defence and refused to agree with slander, for which they received 15 days arrest on charges of disobeying legal demands of police officers.

The general character of proceedings was an outright neglect of procedural rules, also during the consideration of appeals, as was the case in Municipal Court №100, and in the district court.

Elizaveta Prikhodina together with HRC Memorial are making an effort to hold judges who have violated the law to account. Many individual and collective complaints have already been directed to the qualification board of judges and to the higher courts, and there are many further to submit.

The defense of participants in the events of 6 May is but one episode in the constant work of Human Rights Center Memorial in defending civil activists subjected to persecution.