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Footballer Alexander Kokorin’s lawyer protests his client’s arrest

The defense believes that the court had failed to consider all circumstances of the criminal case

Alexander Kokorin Mikhail Tereshenko/TASS

Alexander Kokorin

© Mikhail Tereshenko/TASS

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The defense of FC Zenit player Alexander Kokorin, arrested on the suspicion of hooliganism, has protested the court’s decision, the head of the legal bureau A-PRO, Oleg Popov, said on Monday.

"We’ve just sent an appeal to Moscow’s Tverskoi court against the decision to remand my client in custody," the lawyer said.

Read also

Russian football official urges ethics committee to react to Kokorin and Mamaev’s conduct

The defense believes that the court had failed to take into consideration all circumstances of the criminal case.

"Firstly, Alexander Kokorin took no unlawful action during the events in 2nd Brestskaya Street. On the contrary, he tried to disengage the conflicting parties and to stop the conflict. Secondly, the quarrel between Alexander Kokorin and Denis Pak in a caf· later on October 8 was spontaneous and was as a result of a verbal exchange and cannot be interpreted in accordance with part 2 of article 213 of the Criminal Code (Hooliganism), but should be considered under article 116 of the Criminal Code (Battery). It is also important that the parties made peace at the scene of the conflict, in the caf·," Popov said.

On October 8 Kokorin and Mamayev were involved in two quarrels in the center of Moscow. First, several men attacked the driver of a Mercedes car parked near Bejing Hotel. The incident occurred at 08:30. They beat up the driver and smashed the car’s window and damaged its rear door (the car belongs to TV journalist Olga Ushakova, of Channel One). After that the group of men moved to a caf· in Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, where it beat up the director of a department of the Industry and Trade Ministry Denis Pak. The CEO of Russia’s automotive research institute NAMI Sergei Gaisin, who tried to disengage the quarrelers was hit in the face by one of them.

The Moscow police are investigating three criminal cases: two opened over battery under Article 116 of the Criminal Code and another one against Kokorin and Mamayev under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code for hooliganism in collusion. Earlier, a court arrested Kokorin’s younger brother Kirill and Alexander Protasovitsky within the framework of the same case. Mamayev appealed his arrest earlier.

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