Verdict to political prisoner Mikhail Kosenko marks a return to punitive psychiatry
Statement by the YABLOKO party
October 9, 2013
On October 8 Zamoskvoretskiy City Court, Moscow, ruled out that Mikhail Kosenko, one of the defendants of the Bolotnaya Square rally case must undergo [psychiatric] compulsory treatment.
We consider this verdict inhuman and demonstratively cruel.
Mikhauk Kosenko was arrested on the charges of rioting in Bolotnaya Square, Moscow, on May 6, 2012. The detainee’s mother died in the course of the trial. However, the court denied Kosenko the right to pay the last tribute to his mother and bury her.
None of the so-called victims identified Kosenko as an assaulter, and experts consider the conducted psychiatric examination be fraud.
Now Mikhail will be forcibly exposed to a medical treatment.
We believe that all these actions are targeted at intimidation of those dissenting with Vladimir Putin’s policies and reduction of any public statements and criticism of the president.
Imposing a sentence of compulsory treatment for Mikhail Kosenko the government seeks total obedience and fear.
We demand that the Public Prosecutor should appeal against the unjust sentence.
Sergei Mitrokhin,
YABLOKO Chairman
Posted: October 9th, 2013 under Freedom of Assembly, Human Rights.