In Moscow, police officers hurt the arm of a street musician during apprehension  

News

28 July 2022

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+

29-year old Stanislav Frolov applied to the Moscow branch of the CAT. He told human rights defenders that during his performance at the crossing of the Kuznetsky Most and Rozhdestvenka streets, an unknown man came up to him and, having introduced himself as a district council officer, demanded that he stopped his performance. Later, he called police officers who hurt Frolov’s arm during the apprehension.  The Crew Against Torture commenced public investigation.      

In his explanation, the street musician said that on 23 June, his group was performing in the center of Moscow, 100 m away from the place approved and booked for performance because there were repair works ongoing at the approved place. A young man, allegedly, from the municipal council, came up to them and demanded to stop the performance. At the same time, he did not provide any documents proving his position.      

20 minutes later, two police cars from the Meschansky Dictrict Police Department arrived. The police officers demanded that the musicians showed their IDs, and that one of them went to the police department with them for questioning. When the musicians demanded that the police officers provided a substantiation for questioning, they named Article 11.13 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation (Illegal trade in an unapproved location), however the young men replied they were not selling anything.  

The incident between Stanislav Frolov and the police officers was recorded on video camera. The record shows two police officers took him by the arms, and then, when Stanislav offered resistance, they started to twist his hands. After that the police officers seized him by his legs to take him in the car, but Frolov fell. The police officers pressed him against the pavement, and someone pressed against his neck, according to Stanislav. His arms were pulled behind his back, he was handcuffed and started to be picked up by the handcuffs. At that moment he felt a sharp pain in the left arm and screamed.  

Mr Frolov was taken to the District of the Interior for the Meschansky District, where he spend about 15 minutes, handcuffed, with a swollen arm. According to Stanislav, only after he demanded several times that his injuries were registered and that the medical aid is provided, the man was taken to the first aid station, where his arm was put in a plaster. He spent the night in a cell for the detained for administrative offences, and the next day, the court declared Stanislav guilty under Article 19.3 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation (failure to obey a legal order of the police officer) and he was sentenced to 6 days of arrest.   

Comment from lawyer with the Crew Against Torture:  

The police officers’ actions must be evaluated by the Investigative Committee. All the important data is collected and the investigator only need to qualify the incident with Frolov. We submitted a crime report and hope for cooperation”.      

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