How Shekhtman was slapped with a "tag"

Detention of P. Shekhtman. Photo: Elena Rostunova

Moscow pickets against torture in Kopeisk, which took place on Zhitnaya, near the buildings of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the Ministry of Justice, ended in arrests. 16 activists were “loaded” into a paddy wagon. One of the detainees, an elderly woman, became ill with her heart and was taken away in an ambulance.

The arrests took place with numerous violations, as can be seen by watching the video from Politsvestnik. Several guys were taken away for reading letters from prisoners aloud. Almost all activists were registered according to the already familiar Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing). Apparently, they had to foresee that the prisoners would stage an act of disobedience due to torture in the zone, and submit a notification to the mayor's office in advance.

Be that as it may, many were released pending trial. And only activist Pavel Shekhtman had to spend the night in a cage.

Yesterday, Magistrate Gleb Sibirev (precinct No. 100 of the Zamoskvoretsky District Court) sentenced Shekhtman to 15 days of arrest under Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (petty hooliganism) for insulting a member of the Public Monitoring Commission (POC) Anton Tsvetkov, who is also the chairman of the presidium of the organization "Officers" Russia" and is considered a representative of the security forces in the PMC.

The judge demanded that the public be removed from the courtroom. However, this is exactly what Sibirev did before. For example, on May 7, it is unclear why he convicted Sergei Udaltsov and Alexei Navalny, and on the 8th, when hearings on the cases of detainees continued, he ordered the journalists and observers to be “thrown out” from the courtroom.

According to Shekhtman, in response to the illegal removal of the public, he stated that he did not want to participate in this farce and left the courtroom. The judge examined Shekhtman's case in the absence of the defendant and gave him the maximum punishment - a "tag". In addition, for participating in a series of single pickets, the activist was fined 25 thousand rubles.

What did Shekhtman do? Here's what activists say about the incident.

“They were sitting quietly and registering according to 20.2,” said Gennady Stroganov, “when Anton Tsvetkov from the sponsored faction of the POC arrived and began to sell to the detainees that de Akimenkov was not going blind in prison, he supposedly had always been like this. Shekhtman responded fairly described Tsvetkov as a “coupled bastard,” and when this had no effect, he addressed him directly to the *ugh. Benevolent life-long Yakiman trash... began to draw Shekhtman 20.1, that is, a petty hooligan.”

“The police there were not particularly offended,” says Irina Starodubtseva, “what do they care about some Tsvetkov? Tsvetkov, with his characteristic pressure, began to put pressure on the cops so that they take action against a malicious hooligan who violates the rules of the hostel. They accepted. That’s why Tsvetkov arrived.... The defender of lawlessness has left and arrived in a representative huge Mercedes with a driver and a security guard, yes, Antosha needs this.”

Well, I don’t know what about the security guard, but the PMC member’s Mercedes made an indelible impression on other activists.

“Near the police department there really was a pretty big car with the sign on the license plate “Officers of Russia” and the pompous three letters A**AA,” says Ildar Dadin. “The guys immediately started making fun of it, because they assumed that there was probably some kind of person sitting inside cone".

A heated discussion about the person of the POC member on Facebook revealed that citizens, to put it mildly, do not like him and believe that Shekhtman was convicted unfairly, since he described Tsvetkov accurately and addressed him correctly.

The bloggers' outrage knew no bounds. They remembered Anton Tsvetkov’s latest “merits”: how human rights activists, who enjoy the authority of the people, refused to sit at the same table with him on the air of Dozhd when he found no traces of torture on Razvozzhaev; and how he testified that the world chess champion Garry Kasparov allegedly viciously bit the ensign (though he did not personally see it); and how he recently unfoundedly accused the head of Sitting Rus', Olga Romanova, of dishonesty and slander.

And here is what the executive director of the Solidarity movement, Nadezhda Mityushkina, said about Tsvetkov: “Mr. Tsvetkov has his own team at the POC, and so they often visited the police department after arrests at Strategy 31. The result was the following. If the detainee unknowingly showed them an abrasion, a bruise or torn clothes, then they then went to the police, reported and it was this person who flew up under 19.3 (disobedience to the lawful order of a police officer - I.N.), and the rest were formalized 20.2. Subsequently, if she appeared, she was a witness to one of these stories. this part of the POC, we simply refused to communicate with them."

I advise all protesters to take into account Mityushkina’s words and avoid contact with this “human rights activist.”

I know Nadezhda. She won't say it in vain.

Well, what about Shekhtman? - you ask.

You won't envy Shekhtman. He faces another trial soon. An employee of the "E" center, Alexey Okopny, accused him and one of the leaders of the "Other Russia" movement, Sergei Aksenov, of insulting honor and dignity. The police officer estimated his moral damage, expressed in “shame, insomnia, heart pain and headaches,” at 250 thousand rubles.