21-year-old protester convicted of throwing plastic bottle toward police is set free in Moscow
Evgeny Feldman for Meduza Samariddin Radzhabov, a defendant in the so-called “Moscow case” used to convict summer 2019 election protesters, has been released from custody following his sentencing hearing. Radzhabov was found guilty of threatening violence against state representatives because he allegedly threw a plastic water bottle in the general direction of a group of police officers. The bottle did not hit anyone, but prosecutors argued that Radzhabov intended to exert psychological pressure on the officers when he threw the bottle. While other protesters targeted in the Moscow case have received multi-year prison sentences, Radzhabov was fined 100,000 rubles ($1,613), and the court canceled that fine after considering the time the young man served in pretrial detention. Radzhabov, an aspiring rapper, has resisted the charges against him using his own verses. During his closing statement, Radzhabov chanted, “I protested against the state’s legal disgrace / but the real disgrace is the Moscow case.”
