Anarchist detained in Irkutsk cannot be found

Detained on April 8, an activist of the Solidarity Network initiative and anarchist Igor Martynenko still cannot be found. This was reported to OVD-Info by Martynenko's girlfriend Sofya Mykityuk.

This morning, the mother of the detainee called SIZO-1 in Irkutsk and she was told that Martynenko was there, but now he was taken away by the police. Where he was taken now, the employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service refused to answer.

On April 8, a series of searches took place in Irkutsk with the participation of the SOBR unit and employees of the Center for Combating Extremism, 9 people were detained and taken to the police, including Martynenko, his girlfriend and his mother, a freelance correspondent for the Dozhd TV channel Valery Altareva, as well as several activists Solidarity Networks. Later it became known that a criminal case was opened against one of the activists, Dmitry Lytvyn, under Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the feelings of believers), the rest were interrogated as witnesses in this case.

According to Mikityuk, the detention was rude. The police broke into the apartment early in the morning. Mikityuk woke up from the fact that the flashlight on the special forces machine gun shone in her face. Martynenko was dragged from the bed to the floor and his arms were twisted. The police officers did not answer questions about the reasons for the search and detention, and refused to introduce themselves. Mikityuk was told that she was not detained, but if she becomes stubborn and does not go to the police voluntarily, then she will be taken by force “barefoot”. A plainclothes law enforcement officer searched her belongings before she put them on.

Mykityuk and Martynenko were taken to the building where the Center for Crime and the Criminal Investigation Department are located. They were assigned to different offices. For six hours, Mikityuk sat in the room with a man who introduced himself to her as “Dima”, but whom the policemen who entered called him “Eduard Evgenievich” - this man also refused to introduce himself officially and honestly and give the reasons for what was happening. From time to time, other police officers came into the office and tried to put pressure on the girl - they said that she was engaged in terrorist activities and was hiding a machine gun somewhere, they offered to have a “thorough conversation”.

Six hours later, an investigator came who wanted to interrogate Mikityuk as a witness in a criminal case. The investigator did not give her any other information, and the girl refused to answer questions, referring to Art. 51 of the Constitution. After that, Mikityuk was still held by the police for some time, and then they were taken against her will to the morgue for a medical examination. There she learned about the criminal case for insulting the feelings of believers.