MORE DISSIDENTS JAILED IN RUSSIA….IT’S BEGINNING TO FEEL A LOT LIKE KGB DAYS
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7010X120110102?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true
By Vladimir Soldatkin and Nikolai Isayev
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three Russian opposition leaders received short jail terms on Sunday for “disobedience toward police” after a rally, a party spokesman said, a sign of a new crackdown on critics of the Kremlin.
By Vladimir Soldatkin and Nikolai Isayev
Boris Nemtsov, a Solidarity leader and Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister in 1997-1998, was sentenced to 15 days in jail, another opposition leader, Konstantin Kosyakin, was given ten days and a third, Ilya Yashin, got five days under the same charge.
It was the first time in more than a year that opposition leaders had been imprisoned, albeit for a short time, and came just days after former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to six more years in prison.
Solidarity spokesman Alexei Davydov, who reported the sentences, gave the following account of how Nemstov came to be detained:
“He was caught when he was leaving the rally to see in the New Year with his family. He was confronted by OMON special police and asked them to give way. Then they arrested him. He didn’t do anything illegal,” Davydov said.
A police spokesman confirmed Nemtsov had been arrested, but declined to discuss his case further. “Nemtsov was detained on Dec 31 for disobedience toward police,” he said.
Davydov said the hearing on Nemtsov’s case lasted for about four hours on Sunday.
“It’s a circus and buffoonery, not a court,” veteran human rights defender Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 83, said outside the court.
Police detained at least 130 protesters at New Year’s Eve rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg on Friday against restrictions on freedom of assembly and the court decision to keep Khodorkovsky in jail.
A string of opposition leaders, heading a 1,500-strong protest in freezing weather in central Moscow — sanctioned by the authorities — were among 70 people detained in the capital, an opposition website and non-state media said.
Rights groups and Kremlin critics have been fighting a losing battle with authorities over the right to gather in public, and police routinely break up demonstrations. Washington has urged the Kremlin to respect the right to free assembly.
Opposition activists stage demonstrations on Triumph Square in central Moscow on the last day of each month with 31 days — symbolizing the right to free assembly guaranteed under Article 31 of Russia’s constitution.
(Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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