RTMon, 12 Aug 2019 12:09 UTC
© REUTERS / Shamil ZhumatovFILE PHOTO. Moscow police officers.
A young woman from Moscow, who was apparently punched in the stomach by an officer, says she's seeking justice for alleged police brutality.
Caught on camera, the incident sparked outrage, and is now being probed by authorities.Darya Sosnovskaya was detained last Saturday amid police action targeting
an unsanctioned opposition march in central Moscow.
Footage shows two police officers in riot gear dragging her through the street. One of them tries to pick up a baton, which he apparently dropped earlier, without releasing his hold on the woman. One of her legs apparently gets in his way, and he appears to respond by punching her in the abdomen.Sosnovskaya says she was a victim of police brutality. On Monday, she filed a complaint with Russia's Investigative Committee, requesting a probe into the alleged abuse of power.
The woman said she was not part of the unsanctioned march but rather a bystander who was targeted by the police after complaining about the way they were detaining another person. She said in addition to a bruise she got from the punch,
her head was also injured when the officers were forcing her to get into a truck with other detained people.
Moscow City Police said they would launch an internal investigation into the allegations and vowed that any offenders would be brought to justice.The crackdown on Saturday evening happened hours after a sanctioned rally in Moscow, in which tens of thousands of people took part. They were objecting to what they see as unfair treatment of opposition candidates in the upcoming city council election.
After the rally, some protesters heeded a call to go for a "walk" through central Moscow, defying a warning that it would be treated as an unsanctioned protest and met with police action. Over 130 people were detained in the aftermath, including Sosnovskaya. She said she was charged with violating Russia's rules on mass gatherings, with a court hearing of her case scheduled for Tuesday.
Comment: RFE/RL reports
further:
Russia's National Guard is distancing itself from video footage that shows a uniformed officer punch a detained female protester in the stomach during an August 10 demonstration in Moscow.
The Moscow-based Govorit Moskva radio station on August 12 quoted a National Guard statement as saying that "the employees in the video footage do not belong to Russian National Guard's units."
The statement did not specify which law enforcement unit the officers belong to.
"The Interior Ministry's Moscow Department has ordered a probe into the use of force against a girl detained for violating public order during the August 10 unauthorized rally," the unnamed spokesman told Russian news agency TASS. "All those responsible would be held accountable."
Russian officers are rarely disciplined for using excessive and disproportionate force against demonstrators.
On August 11, Russian civil-rights lawyer Pavel Chikov of the legal-aid group Agora offered a reward of 100,000 rubles ($1,526) for help identifying the officer who punched Sosnovskaya.
"It doesn't matter if the investigations establish the concrete person who caused the harm. He is a representative of the state. Regardless of the outcome, the Russian state will have to pay. And we will make it happen for sure," Chikov said.
Police and other security officers have been criticized in Russia and abroad for their rough treatment of peaceful protesters in Moscow during the past month, including beating them with clubs.
The independent rights watchdog OVD-Info says more than 350 people were detained across Russia on August 10 during protests against the refusal of election officials to register several opposition candidates for Moscow's municipal elections.
Seventy-nine people were detained in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, 13 in Rostov-on-Don, two in Bryansk, and two in Syktyvkar.
At previous protests in Moscow, police detained about 1,400 people on July 27 and more than 1,000 people on August 3.
Russian President Vladimir Putin created the National Guard in April 2016 to fight terrorism and organized crime. It is headed by Viktor Zolotov, a former steelworker who had been the head of the presidential security service from 2000 to 2013.
Russia's National Guard reports directly to Putin.
Russia has proven that it is more than willing to investigate and punish authorities who abuse their positions; the
arrest of prison guards who tortured an inmate, as well as the unlawful arrest of a
journalist who was exposing police corruption are just two examples. In the West, similar examples of justice being meted out are few and far between; relentless and infamous
US police brutality is one example, another would be the dead, and tens of people blinded and
maimed during the
Yellow Vest protests in France, brutality that was
condemned by the West's very own Amnesty International.
Moreover, it's important to remember that these Moscow protesters are the likely pawns in a more sinister
scheme, as is also happening in
Hong Kong:
Comment: RFE/RL reports further: Russia has proven that it is more than willing to investigate and punish authorities who abuse their positions; the arrest of prison guards who tortured an inmate, as well as the unlawful arrest of a journalist who was exposing police corruption are just two examples. In the West, similar examples of justice being meted out are few and far between; relentless and infamous US police brutality is one example, another would be the dead, and tens of people blinded and maimed during the Yellow Vest protests in France, brutality that was condemned by the West's very own Amnesty International.
Moreover, it's important to remember that these Moscow protesters are the likely pawns in a more sinister scheme, as is also happening in Hong Kong: