Journalist and Pussy Riot member Pyotr Verzilov sentenced to 15 days in jail

Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court has sentenced Pyotr Verzilov, a Pussy Riot member and the publisher of the independent legal news website Mediazona, to 15 days administrative arrest, Mediazona reports.

An administrative protocol was drawn up against him for acts of minor hooliganism, “due to the fact that he allegedly repeatedly expressed himself [using] obscene language,” his lawyer, Leonid Solovyov, reported.

On June 21, Verzilov was arrested and questioned as part of the “Moscow case” — a group of criminal cases against multiple suspects accused of various crimes related to the protests in the Russian capital during the summer of 2019.

In particular, he was questioned in connection with the events of June 27, 2019, when police in Moscow dispersed a protest rally calling for free elections. Investigators have named Verzilov as the organizer of the “riots,” but he remains a witness in the case so far. When Verzilov was released from the police station after questioning, he was attacked by a provocateur, and immediately arrested once again.

According to one version of the events, Verzilov was arrested because he was allegedly preparing an action against the June 24th Victory Day parade. He denies these claims.

Verzilov’s arrest has also been linked to a post he published on Instagram, in which he used a quote from the musician Zakhar May: “When our tanks enter Moscow, I will hang many.”