They didn't let me stand

The prefecture of the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow illegally refused to hold a picket on February 4 in defense of Vsevolod Ostapov, a student who was beaten along with his comrades at the Sokolniki police station on April 4, 2008 and subsequently accused of assaulting a policeman. Participants in the Movement against police brutality were going to hold a march on February 13 at 13.00 from the Gogol monument along Gogol Boulevard to the Engels monument, where they would start a rally at 14.00. A corresponding notice was submitted to the mayor's office, but the right to hold a procession was also denied. The location of the rally was moved to Chistye Prudy. Campaign participants are going to challenge the refusal to hold a picket in court. The procession was also cancelled.

As is known, none of the young people detained that day or who witnessed the detention confirmed that Ostapov attacked the policeman. The case of the beating was illegally closed, but recently the head of the Investigative Committee at the prosecutor’s office, Alexander Bastrykin, reversed the decision to close it.