Some people in police costumes

On March 26, at about 16:30, some people dressed as police officers tied me up at the exit of the Chekhovskaya metro station. I did not commit any illegal actions, there were no legal reasons for the arrest, it was carried out with numerous violations of the Federal Law “On Police” (they did not introduce themselves, did not state the basis for the arrest, did not warn about the use of physical force, they used physical force without legal grounds). Several times I asked why I was being detained, in response they beat me and shouted: “Shut up, &#@%ь! I’ll tear out your tongue!”

At approximately 17:40 we were taken to the Bogorodskoye police station, where everyone was illegally searched and their mobile phones were illegally confiscated. The only reason they didn’t take my phone away was because I hid it in my underpants and refused to give it back. A police officer grabbed me by the groin and threatened: “Now I’ll take you to the paddy wagon, and you’ll take off my pants there.” He took me to the paddy wagon, grabbed me by the neck and applied a painful hold. It hurt me and I screamed. This was enough to defend my rights, thanks to which I remained in touch for several more hours. However, the police continued to make threats. Separately, they delivered phrases from the series “What a bitch, we’ll treat you like a human being , and you!” And also typical remarks in such cases: “Are you & %@#№, the smartest?”, “I’ll kill you, bitch!”, “How much did they pay you for this?”

According to the law, the police had to release everyone by 19:30, since the grounds for limiting our freedom were never given. Nevertheless, at the Bogorodsky police station they kept us until about 21:00 (everyone except me was freezing on the street for more than three hours). After that, some of the people were left at the police station, and the rest were taken further - me and nine other people were unloaded at the already notorious Metrogorodok police station at approximately 21:40.

“Oh, how I want to break into Metrotown!”

In Metrogorodok, the head of the police department spoke to us, who said that we all knew what we were getting into, he sees that we are adults and conscientious people, so he believes that we will behave in a civilized and decent manner, so that we will be processed and released as soon as possible . The speech was inspiring, but it later became clear that the head of the police department was a liar, a hypocrite and a criminal. According to his instructions, police officers:

1. They did not allow defense lawyers to visit us (according to the law, a detainee has the right to a defense lawyer from the moment of detention), they lied to them that we were not at the police department. Defenders began to be allowed in only after Valentin Karelin secured an appointment with the prosecutor. But even after that, not everyone was allowed in and not to everyone.

2. Refused to accept complaints and petitions.

3. They forbade giving us food, water and medicine.

4. Forced to submit fingerprints.

5. They deliberately created discomfort (I heard a snippet of a telephone conversation in which they talked about not allowing us to sleep).

6. Forced to testify in a criminal case regarding mass riots (interrogations and investigative actions are prohibited by law from 22:00 to 07:00).

7. We were not supplied with drinking water in sufficient quantities (in 34 hours at the police station we received 0.7 liters of drinking water).

8. They placed 10 people in two terribly stuffy, dark double cells, so they had to sleep on the floor (on a mat made from cardboard ration boxes ; for the last night they were given two mattresses) and two at a time on a single wooden floor without linen in a jack pose. 69".

9. They did not release us from custody after 48 hours (the police had no right to keep us after that).

10. In addition, the head of the police department lied, saying that we would be released, but we were kept in the police department for about 34 hours.

It is equally important that in accordance with Art. 27.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, administrative detention can be applied in exceptional cases. In our case, there was no need to keep us in the bullpen:

• The offenses charged to us were of a minor nature.

• We did not pose a public danger.

• We had no motive to avoid justice.

We were all given the same protocols with the same reports (often filled out in the same handwriting), accusing us of disobeying the legal demands of police officers and breaking the cordon (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). This was a lie: none of us broke through the cordon, the police officers did not make any demands. The reports were not written by the same police officers who detained us (which is a gross violation). There were a huge number of errors and procedural violations in the cases. It is worth noting that after rallies, cases are always fabricated this way, but in our case the falsifications were even more obvious and overt than usual, which later played into our hands in court.

“There is such a profession - to cleanse the homeland”

In the cell we whiled away the time as best we could: we read poems by modern (and not so modern) poets, lectures about the justice system in the Russian Federation and organizations of the future. We also sang songs and joked a lot. The mood in general was quite cheerful.

At one time, Ivan Ninenko wisely noted that what works in our organs is not evil, but evil, which is pitiful and not scary. And we had the opportunity to verify the 100% truth of his words. For example, all day on March 27, a certain Pavel, a young lieutenant, whom we nicknamed Little Goebbels, communicated with us for his irreconcilable attitude towards the enemies of the Reich (that is, us), refusal to provide us with drinking water under false pretexts (“there is no kettle in the police department”, “there is , but it’s in a closed room”, “in an open room, but I can’t use it, it’s the boss’s kettle”, “I can use it, but I don’t have time”, “why do you need a kettle, drink from the tap , I in the army he drank from the tap "), and a cartoonishly angry look.

During my meeting with defense lawyer Valentin Karelin, he said that he would do everything that the head of the police department ordered. “Commendable devotion!” Valentin said.

They fed us dry rations. Compound:

• Barley porridge with beef surrogate. We ate it gagging, out of despair, and nicknamed it “barley with beef.”

• Liver pate (it seems no one dared to eat it).

• Biscuits (edible!)

• Jam in a bag (edible!)

• Salt, sugar.

• Jelly concentrate (edible!)

• May tea in a bag (in the absence of water, apparently, it is supposed to be absorbed under the tongue).

In one of the sets, Misha Medovshchikov came across a can of beef stew. When Misha asked Pavel to open it, Pavel was quite surprised and said that they had never asked before. “Apparently, they swallowed it whole, drinking it from the tap ,” Misha joked. The stew also tasted quite surrogate. In our general opinion, a couple of packs of doshirak would be healthier and healthier than surrogate pearl barley and cloudy pate.

On the afternoon of March 27, Eltan, an Azerbaijani who was facing deportation, was moved in with us. We quickly found a common language (although he spoke little Russian ) and supported him as best we could. “It doesn’t matter whether you go to prison or not, what matters is Allah!” he said, and it was impossible to disagree with him. Thanks for the poems. In the evening they brought him a package (unlike us, he was allowed it), and he generously treated us. When we were taken to court, we said goodbye to him like brothers.

“If a person is completely innocent, the court may reduce the punishment. Maybe even give it conditionally!”

On the morning of March 28, we were loaded into a paddy wagon and taken to the Tverskoy court. It was there that the saving mistake of the metrogorodkovites was revealed: the officers who delivered us told the girl who was in charge of falsifying the protocols at the police department that we were detained on Sretensky Boulevard (in reality, on Strastnoy), and this migrated to all the protocols, which transferred us to the jurisdiction of the Meshchansky Court. But he , apparently, was not instructed as harshly as Tverskoy, who gave arrest for 8-15 days to almost everyone. The falsification of the cases was obvious to the naked eye, and friends in the authorities say that the police walk around in Vaseline, because there have not been so many gross blunders for a long time. As a result, the judge gave only fines to the detainees (without arrest for 8–15 days, as in almost all cases of Article 19.3 considered in the Tverskoy court).

Here it is especially important to note that there was no cordon on Sretensky Boulevard, but, nevertheless, the Russian court recognized that Oleg Lutin was detained on Strastnoy Boulevard, and Mikhail Medovshchikov on Sretensky. Now let’s look at the photo, which shows that Medovshchikov and Lutin were detained together. But according to the documents, one is on Strastnoy Boulevard, the other is on Sretensky. This is what a Russian court is like!

So many inconsistencies, outright falsifications and procedural violations were revealed in my case (which my lawyer Valentin Karelin previously outlined to the judge) that the judge returned the case to eliminate the shortcomings. The shortcomings were not corrected (the deadlines had expired, my presence was necessary, the police had no legal grounds to ensure it), the trial was on Friday. The judge was furious with the employees (for screwing it up like that) and with me (for not helping the employees eliminate the shortcomings in the case they falsified, of course), but awarded a minimal fine (you can’t, after all, fight against colleagues in the shop). Since there are no changes in the case, I think it will be possible to destroy it even in Russia, and file a complaint with the ECHR for illegal detention.

At the same time on the Western Front

While I was in custody, my heroic wife Mila and defender Valentin Karelin did the possible and the impossible. Even I, accustomed to the most creative approaches in the fight against the arbitrariness of government agencies, was a little taken aback when I saw the package of documents that Valentin and Mila had prepared for the trial (including a character reference from the priest) and learned that Valentin had obtained an appointment with the prosecutor at an unusual time, and Mila I asked and got a story about us on RBC-TV and many other places.

Overall, it looks like Valentin is the most competent, resourceful, and energetic advocate involved so far through March 26th. Among other things, during the appeal he managed to achieve the release of Oleg Lutin, who had previously been sentenced to 12 days. This is an extremely rare case! Other appeals on the same day were unsuccessful. All of his clients (initially Lutin was defended by an Open Russia lawyer ) got off with only fines. In general, I highly recommend it to you.

Now we are cheerful and determined to legally punish police officers who exceeded their authority, as well as to appeal court decisions to higher authorities, up to the ECHR. Let's give all the bad boys the most sparkling attack! Within legal limits, of course, and not for the sake of revenge, but for improving the system.