The court approved the decision to forcibly place a Nizhny Novgorod activist in a psychiatric hospital

On June 1, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court approved the decision to forcibly place Nizhny Novgorod activist Alexei Onoshkin in a psychiatric hospital. This was reported by local blogger Alexey Podnebesny.

Onoshkin was detained for a compulsory examination on April 28, and later the court sent him for compulsory treatment. With reference to Onoshkin’s lawyer, Podnebesny said that the basis for this was a statement from a certain citizen about the activist’s suicidal tendencies because of a video in which Onoshkin says that the Russian authorities are driving him to suicide, like Nizhny Novgorod journalist Irina Slavina. At the trial, Onoshkin himself explained that he expressed himself figuratively and did not speak about real intentions.

The Celestial Empire noted that the materials for the court were provided by the Center for Countering Extremism, and Onoshkin was escorted to the meeting by police officers.

• On his VKontakte page, Alexey Onoshkin repeatedly spoke out against the actions of the Russian armed forces on the territory of Ukraine, and on March 2 he was detained at an anti-war rally. He was also fined 40 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code).
• OVD-Info is aware of the arrests of an activist at a rally in memory of Irina Slavina in October 2020, for publicly reading George Orwell aloud in July 2018, and at a rally in defense of a local school in 2013. He alsofaced pressure from the authorities in 2012 during opposition protests over the results of parliamentary and presidential elections.
• On October 2, 2020, the editor-in-chief of the KozaPress publication Irina Slavina came to the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Nizhny Novgorod, tied herself to a bench, doused her clothes with flammable liquid and set her on fire . Before self-immolation, the journalist wrote on her Facebook: “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death.”