YABLOKO’s leader detained by
police and transported to court
Press Release
May 8, 2011
Today, on May 8, YABLOKO’s leader Sergei
Mitrokhin and a group of party activists joined the group
of environmentalists who have been trying to protect Khimki
forest from cutting.
YABLOKO’s activists have been in the environmentalists’ camp
all these days trying to stop cutting of the woods. On May
6 unidentified young men attacked the camp and injured Suren
Gazaryan who came to Khimki from the Krasnodar Area so that
to support the environmentalists in the Moscow region.
On May 8 environmentalists, YABLOKO’s activists and local
citizens conducted a peaceful rally, however, the riot police
(OMON) broke the rally and detained over 20 people, including
YABLOKO’s leader Sergei Mitrokhin, head of Movement in Defence
of Khimki Forest Eugenia Chirikova, Yaroslav Nikitenko, Sergei
Udaltsov and leader of the Klin branch of YABLOKO Yuri Samsonov.
When Sergei Mitrokhin arrived to the site, he saw the police
were beating people and pushing them into the police coach.
He asked the police why they were detaining and beating people,
but instead of an answer there was a command to detain Mitrokhin.
Mitrokhin was detained by five OMON policemen who twisted
his arms wrenching one arm. Then he was pushed into the police
coach with 20 other detained activists.
It is interesting to note that a man (who was not wearing
police uniform and was presumably representing the local administration)
was giving orders to police. Another person was video recording
the detention. When the latter was asked who he was and whether
he was a bandit, he replied that he was a bandit.
Most likely Sergei Mitrokhin and the activists will be incriminated
“disobeying the police” which envisaged up to 15 days of arrest.
The witness invited by police during search of the detained
was drunk.
YABLOKO warned head of the police department Igor Sheruimov
that he was disrupting a memorial action of a federal party
on a verge of Victory Day, as YABLOKO had to lay flowers to
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the same day at 4 p.m.
“I assess the actions of the police a purposeful provocation
of the Khimki district authorities on the verge of Victory
Day,” Mitrokhin said.
Now Sergei Mitrokhin and the activists are in the court waiting
for a trial.
