The Moscow City Court overturned the decision on involuntary treatment of a detainee for a single picket

The Moscow City Court fully upheld the appeal against the decision to involuntarily hospitalize Gennady Pirogov, who was detained with a poster “Putin to Emperor!” This was reported to OVD-Info by Konstantin Boykov, a lawyer at the Memorial Human Rights Center, who represents Pirogov’s interests.

The lower court's decision was overturned. According to Boykov, the prosecutor sided with the defense. She stated that if a person goes out on a solo picket, he cannot be detained for this and placed in a psychiatric hospital.

“In all medical cases, prosecutors usually take the side of the medical institution. There was a pleasant exception here: the prosecutor, apparently, delved into the complaint and looked at what medical documentation was in the case,” the lawyer said.

The complaint stated that Pirogov was not aggressive and did not pose a threat to anyone, including himself - accordingly, they could not send him for involuntary treatment. According to Boykov, the prosecutor also pointed this out.

Corrected: Konstantin Boykov clarified that in this case the legally correct term is “involuntary treatment” and not “forced”, as was stated earlier.

• Gennady Pirogov was detained on March 16, when he stood in a single picket with a poster “Putin to Emperor!” The police department said that the man had schizophrenia and delusions of grandeur, since during the action he was dressed in a tsar’s costume.
• Afterwards he was sent to the Moscow Regional Psychiatric Hospital, where the man’s phone was taken away. On March 17, Pirogov was visited by his wife. He said that he was forced to take unknown pills and give injections, and was also given a paper agreeing to treatment.
• On March 21, the court decided to forcibly hospitalize Pirogov.