Russian authorities ramp up political prosecutions

15 Mar 12 | Russia

Moscow city court has refused to release two members of punk feminist group Pussy Riot. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina were arrested after having performed a protest song “Mother of God, send Putin away” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral on charge of hooliganism. Now they will be staying under arrest until 24 April, when they face trial and might be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

The case is seen as politically motivated as Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin, who has just won the presidential elections, was likely to take offence at the protest, according to Tolokonnikova’s husband and Moscow art activist Petr Verzilov. That might be the reason why the court did not take into consideration that both Tolokonnikova and Alekhina have young children.

Lawyers for members of Pussy Riot have expressed concern that the judge who sanctioned their arrest is also offended and biased: in July 2010 she tried a case against organisers of the “Forbidden Art” exhibition. They were found guilty of “debasing religious beliefs of citizens and inciting religious hatred”. Tolokonnikova together with other Voina activists protested against the verdict by bringing cockroaches to the court room and letting them free there.

Russia’s leading human rights activists Lyudmila Alekseeva and Lev Ponomaryov have condemned Tolokonnikova’s and Alekhina’s arrest, calling the court decision “repressive” and highlighting selectivity of Russian judicial system.

While Pussy Riot remains under arrest awaiting trial, a policeman in the city of Kazan who is suspected of violence against a detainee which led to his death was released before the trial. The policeman together with his colleagues in Kazan’s Dalni police department allegedly raped the detainee with a champagne bottle.

A number of single pickets supporting Tolokonnikova’s and Alekhina’s have taken place near the court building. Three protesters were arrested for breaking the rules on pickets after instigators, allegedly from pro-Kremlin youth movements, tried to attack them, take away their placards and initiate a scuffle. Activists in Novosibirsk have created “icons” depicting Pussy Riot members. The church has already called it hooliganism and asked for an investigation.

Meanwhile another political prisoner, Taisiya Osipova  — a member of The Other Russia opposition movement, and also a mother of a small child —  has been refused freedom until her  trial in Smolensk. She was sentenced to ten years on charges of drug trafficking in December. After mass protests against her prosecution, with even President Medvedev saying the verdict was “too cruel”, the court cancelled the verdict and submitted the case for reconsideration. Osipova, who has diabetes and claims the case was trumped-up as a revenge for her and her husband’s membership in The Other Russia, was to be released on 13 March. Now she will stay under arrest until 15 June. Her supporters also worry that the biased court will find her guilty again.

Both Osipova and Pussy Riot’s cases were subjects of mass protest rallies in Moscow. All the rallies’ resolutions included the demand to release political prisoners immediately. Just as the other requirements, this one was not fulfilled by Russian authorities.

If anyone doubted that protest mood remained strong in Russia, politically motivated cases might be the reason not to have any more doubts.

20,000 gather in Moscow to remind Putin of election fraud allegations

12 Mar 12 | Russia

Thousands of people gathered on central Moscow street Novy Arbat on Sunday to call for Vladimir Putin to step down. The rally was a follow-up to mass protest rallies which started after allegedly fraudulent parliamentary elections in December.

It was much smaller than the protests leading up to the election, and the mood was dramatically altered.

This time, people had to face the reality that the right to freedom could not be achieved in just three months and that the opposition’s most popular slogan “Russia without Putin” cannot be actualised without a clear political strategy. Some opposition leaders, who have been courageously protesting against Putin must now re-evaluate their strategies. At the protest, TV host Ksenia Sobchak stood on stage and said that protesters needed to “form a concrete list of what they are standing up for”. “This road is long, but Russia will be free in the end”, said Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko party founder and unregistered presidential candidate, reflecting the principal current message of Russian opposition: it takes time for the civil society to restore their violated rights.

One of Russia’s leading independent political scientists, Dmitry Oreshkin, monitored the elections on 4 March. Together with other independent elections monitors, he announced the presidential election results based on their independent calculations. Oreshkin claims Putin did not win the elections in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg (in these cities he got less than 50 per cent needed to win in the first round, independent monitors counted). This marks a tendency, which is likely to spread over Russia, Oreshkin said to protesters: if big cities citizens don’t vote for Putin today, smaller cities won’t vote for him either tomorrow.

Left Front leader Sergey Udaltsov tried to march to Pushkin Square with his supporters after the rally. Hundreds of Moscow nationalists tried to do the same on Stary Arbat avenue. Protesters from both groups were arrested “for breaking the law on rallies”. Opposition in Saint-Petersburg also tried to march in the city centre, but police hadn’t sanctioned the action, and 40 protesters were arrested.

Monitors’ reports and plans to form a detailed political strategy were the two major topics of the rally on the 10 March. The third was dedicated to political prisoners in Russia, particularly two members of the punk feminist group “Pussy Riot”, Nadezhda Tolokonnikkova and Maria Alekhina, who were arrested after their act of protest in a cathedral, and Alexey Kozlov, the husband of human rights activist and one of the rally’s organisers  Olga Romanova.

Many of the participants in the rally planned to attend the court hearings on Kozlov and Pussy Riot. Those who protest against Vladimir Putin and demand political reform are amongst those who also call for profound reform of the judicial system.

Egypt: Court clears ‘virginity test’ doctor

12 Mar 12 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost

A doctor accused of carrying out forced “virginity tests” on female Egyptian protesters has been acquitted by a military court. Ahmed Adel was cleared after the judge found contradictions in witness statements. The case was brought by Samira Ibrahim, who said the “tests” were carried out on female protesters who were detained during a protest in Tahrir Square in March 2011. Ibrahim wrote on Twitter that the verdict had stained the honour of Egypt and she would carry on until she had “restored Egypt’s rights”.