The court arrested for five days the St. Petersburg residents who imitated police work: they pretended to beat detainees with batons

The Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested 11 local residents who participated in simulating the work of law enforcement agencies. This was reported by the joint press service of the city courts.

Dmitry Romantsev, Bogdan Saribekyan, Alexander Zhokhov, Alexander Demyanov, Roman Malyshev, Ilya Barbashin, Ivan Khrabrov, Artem Banshchikov, Andrei Kozulin, Vasily Melnikov and Vladimir Shipulin were found guilty of petty hooliganism (Part 1 of Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code). They were all given five days of arrest.

As the press service said in a statement, on October 28, St. Petersburg residents, while on Nevsky Prospekt, began to imitate the work of security forces: those involved in the administrative case put people on the ground and began beating them with sticks, thereby “creating a negative image of the work of law enforcement agencies.”

In addition, the detainees used airsoft weapons. The court emphasized that the residents of St. Petersburg, by their actions, “ignored the rules of decency” and “demonstrated disrespect for society.”

The telegram channel “Mash on the Moika” published a video on October 29 in which police officers are detaining St. Petersburg residents. According to the channel, these were staged prank actors who were trying to put on a show for the participants of the coaching meeting.

As Mash on the Moika writes, almost 20 people were eventually taken to the police department - both those who portrayed security forces and those who were detainees. According to the channel, security forces also opened a criminal case.

Updated at 18:40 . Information has been added about the arrest of four more people.