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Pussy Riot members hit police officer by car during detention in Moscow

The activists have been detained and are in a police department

Maria Alyokhina Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

Maria Alyokhina

© Sergey Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Two members of the Pussy Riot feminist protest punk rock and performance art group Maria Alyokhina and Lucy Stein hit a police officer by car in downtown Moscow during their detention, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"During their detention for taking part in an unauthorized rally in support of Alexey Navalny the young women knocked down a police officer by car in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky by-street. The activists have been detained and are in a police department," the source said.

A lawyer for Alyokhina told TASS the young women were in Arbat police department. They are facing charges under Part 2 of Article 20.2 Code of Administrative Offences (organizing or holding a public event without notification).

No criminal case has been launched against them.

An unauthorized rally in support of detained Alexei Navalny was held in Moscow on January 23. According to a medical source, 42 law enforcement officers sustained various injuries. There are also injuries among the protesters.

Navalny, who had been twice convicted for fraud, was put on a wanted list for violating the terms of punishment under the Yves Rocher case on many occasions. He was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Berlin. Moscow’s Khimki Court ordered Navalny to be remanded in custody until February 15. On February 2, the court is scheduled to hear a motion on replacing his suspended sentence with a real one.

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