All news

Court sanctions another arrests of the sick opposition member

Protest actions in defense of Sergey Udaltsov, leader of the Left-Wing Front

MOSCOW, December 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Protest actions in defense of Sergey Udaltsov, leader of the Left-Wing Front, were held outside the building of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow and the mayor’s office. During the past month he was kept either in a detention center, or in hospital because of his worsening health. Justice Olga Borovkova again sentenced Udaltsov to ten days of arrest for a picket outside the building of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) two months ago, which actually did not take place. The trail of Udaltsov developed into a scandal.

Udaltsov was to be released late last week after staying in custody for 15 days for his refusal to obey the lawful demands of the police, Novye Izvestia writes. On Sunday night, however, the court sentenced his to another punishment – ten days of imprisonment for participation in a one-man picket outside the CEC building on October 24. The trial was held in a usual way. Udaltsov was accused of having organized the illegal picketing, blocking road traffic and offering resistance to the police. When the verdict was pronounced, the civil activist felt faint. The ambulance had to be called. He was brought to the same Hospital No. 64, where he had been kept last week. Udaltsov had been brought to hospital, because he had been on a dry hunger strike for ten days during his first arrest.

The trial of Udaltsov turned into a big scandal, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes. Justice Borovkova refused to let journalists in, and the latter staged a spontaneous rebellion, demanding that she stop violating the law. Mikhail Fedotov, head of the presidential council for human rights, got interested in the incident.

Doctors say that Udaltsov is suffering from stomach ulcer, which aggravated again, Moskovsky Komsomolets writes. “The situation is so serious, that the ulcer may be opened again, which may provoke bleeding.” Udaltsov decided to stop the hunger strike, because he had no intention to die. “The authorities would be only pleased, if I did. The ruling of Borovkova is inhuman. At the same time, however, the authorities promote the growth of the number of opposition supporters by their actions. My purpose was to promote maximum response to the situation and to express my protest. I succeeded in that, in a way,” he said.

Udaltsov was arrested for the third time in succession, despite contradictions in the evidence given by the policemen who arrested him, as well as a sharp deterioration of his health after a series of hunger strikes, Vedomosti writes. Under Article 31.5 of the Code of Administrative Violations, the arrest could be postponed for a month. Justice Borovkova, however, ordered the transfer of Udaltsov from the hospital back to the prison cell. She is equally cruel with other members of the opposition. In January 2011 she made Boris Nemtsov stand on foot for several hours, when his case was examined. She ordered the arrest of Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin after the rally, held on December 5, 2011. Previously she had ordered the arrest of Lev Ponomaryov and Konstantin Kosyankin.