On December 5 and 6, 2011 during protest actions against mass falsifications during State Duma elections on December 4 large scale detentions of manifestants took place: in Moscow almost 900 people were detained, in St. Petersburg – more than 400.

Use of force by police was obviously disproportionate and was accompanied by violation of law. The manifestants were beat up during the detentions and further on. A lot of journalists who fulfilled their professional duties were detained or suffered from police actions.

In police departments the law was also broken. People were kept in inacceptable conditions during hours. Small premises were overcrowded. Contrary to all rules, there was no place to sleep; people were not fed along with that parcels were not accepted. In many cases lawyers were not allowed to enter police departments. At last on the ground of false policemen’s reports cases of administrative infractions were fabricated.

During considering these cases in magistrate’s and district courts mass rights violations continued. Public and even defenders were not admitted to court rooms. Courts functioned as conveyers without even trying to create visibility of justice. The court decisions are obviously preconceived and demonstratively cruel. Dozens of people are under administrative arrest.

HRC “Memorial” and also Amnesty International consider the participants of peaceful action to be prisoners of conscience and demand cessation of police and judicial violence. Prosecutors of Moscow and St. Petersburg must immediately pass a protest against courts’ decisions on mass arrests. Passed decisions must be reviewed and the cases left must be considered objectively and according to the law.

December 9, 2011

For further information:

Human Rights Center Memorial,

email: memhrc@memo.ru