![]() Amnesty International, in a statement issued in connection with earlier convictions of protestors at the Bolotnaya Squared demonstration on 6 May 2012, has said: “What happened on Bolotnaya Square on 6 May 2012 was not the quelling of a riot, but the crushing of a protest. The Bolotnaya trial has not exposed orchestrated violence, but rather a criminal justice system that is entirely malleable to the dictates of its political masters. The defendants in this trial were confronted by abusive use of force by police. Some of them sought to prevent violence, others to protect themselves. A few were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. All are victims of a politically motivated show trial. Contrary to the official line, there was not a mass riot. There was violence, but most of it was at the hands of the police. To this day, however, not a single police officer has been brought to justice for these abuses.' Amnesty International has called for the immediate and unconditional release of earlier defendants in the Bolotnaya Square trials, describing the verdicts issued in the case as 'part of a wider clampdown on freedoms of assembly, association and expression since Vladimir Putin resumed the Russian presidency on 7 May 2012.' Source: 'Bolotnaya Square Protest Rally Participant Sentenced to 2.5 Years,' The Moscow Times, 22 December 2015 RUSSIA: GUILTY VERDICT IN BOLOTNAYA CASE -- INJUSTICE AT ITS MOST OBVIOUS, Amnesty International, 21 February 2014 Photo: Radio Svoboda |