![]() A great deal has changed since the events of July 27th, our lives included. During the demonstration in support of unregistered candidates to the Moscow City Duma, a record number of people were detained in Moscow. The brutality of law enforcement officers and violations committed by both them and the courts, were unprecedented. We will have to live with the consequences of this for a long time. If you were detained on July 27 and need help in court:
If you are charged with an article that involves administrative arrest (for example, part 6.1 of article 20.2 of the Administrative Code), then we advise you not to go to court. There are more useful instructions here, where you will learn what to do if your report contains an arrest article. In general, we recommend that you have a read through the section entitled "Your Rights" on our website — now is a good time to improve your legal literacy. We are now on constant high alert, as you should be. If you are going to the demonstration tomorrow, or there is a chance that you will be nearby, you MUST install our legal bot and write down the number of the 24-hour hotline OVD-info — 8 800 707-05-28. Stay in touch, take care, share any useful information with friends, and do not panic. We will not abandon you! If you are a lawyer with an interest in human rights, and you want to help detainees — tell us about yourself at advokat@ovdinfo.org. We need your help now more than ever. And now, onwards to this week’s news. The most important and disturbing news is that of the criminal case opened by the Investigative Committee following Saturday’s demonstrations. The case cited parts of Article 212 of the Criminal Code, six have been accused, some of whom face up to 15 years in prison. Five more people were detained the day before.
Alexander Savelyev is accused of cooperation with the "undesirable organisation". On Tuesday, searches took place in the office of "Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus". During the search, security forces used tear gas, leaving the coordinator Andrey Rudomakha with chemical burns.
18 Crimean Tatars who supported the defendants in the "Hizb ut-Tahrir" case in early July, have been fined 20 thousand rubles each.
Crimean Tatar activist Eden Bekirov is forced to say that the leaders of the Mejlis were preparing a terrorist attack in Crimea. The activist survived a heart attack, he has a disability, and lost his leg due to diabetes. According to investigators, in Crimea Bekirov gave the taxi driver a bag with almost 12 kg of TNT and almost 200 rounds of ammunition and asked them to hide it.
But there is some good news (alas, only one bit). Kolomensky activist Vyacheslav Egorov was released from house arrest. The court has instead banned him from communicating with the participants in the case, participating in rallies, using the internet or disseminating information about his criminal case. But can leave his house!
Texts This time, all our texts are relating to the events of July 27th. Here, Misha Shubin talks about the results of the demonstrations and the actions of law enforcement. Here Sasha Litoy writes about how the detainees spent the night in police custody (spoilers: it was very bad). We have compiled a summary of the violations committed by the authorities during and after the protests. We have virtually never seen such blatant disregard for the rights of peaceful protesters. The cherry on top of this most unpleasant cake was, of course, a criminal case. The last time events like this took place in Moscow was May 6th, 2012. With the permission of "MediaZona", we have republished their story. Scooters, cards, "majors" and DNA. Vladimir Gelmel was detained on July 27th, when he was driving from work past Trubnaya square on his scooter. He was found guilty of participation in the demonstration, arrested, and then interrogated. Gelmel's friend Maria told OVD-info his story. "The main thing is, a person should never be left alone in the system." I would like to finish this newsletter with something that does not cause anger in its author. Our beautiful and irreplaceable legal service coordinator Alla Frolova gave an inspiring interview to "Afisha", where she talked about how OVD-info works and how much we’ve (not) slept this week. "I rarely watch OVD-info because no normal person can read it every day," Alla says. So, to avoid going crazy, read our newsletter. Luckily, it only comes out once a week. What a week! Every day we write about the news and help detainees. We rely on your support. You can sign up for a monthly OVD-info donation to allow us to continue preparing your favorite newsletter and more. Translated by James Lofthouse |