We call for a Global Day of Action in support of Seva Ostapov on July the 18th!
Together against police brutality!
Seven young men were detained and beaten up by militia officers on april the 4th of 2008 in Moscow, Russia. The reason for this was an attempt made by those well versed in law folks to intervene with the illegal detention attempt of their friend, one Seva Ostapov, student of departement of physics and mathematics of RUDN (RUDN for Russian University of Peoples' Friendship). Once in the militia departement (OVD), "law enforcers" decided to show "smartasses" the error of their ways: for several hours they've been viciously beatening up and torturing our friends with shocker.
Since the case has been immediately given as wide coverage as possible, cops decided to go on the offensive, i.e. they charged with civil disobedience 6 of the young people (supposedly for a part in public brawl - a brilliant move to cover up the cop-inflicted wounds on their bodies), while the seventh one, Seva Ostapov, got a felony charge of an assault on a cop, although the security cameras recordings and numerous witnesses point out the charge is a fraud.
Prosecutor office is working on Seva's case with all possible seriousness: witness reports of his friends are ignored, and suddenly out of nowhere appear strange "eyewitnesses that happen to be around". Upon closer examination those witnesses happen to be ex-cops from the same department, where the torture took place. As the events unfold, the case brought up against militia department for illegal detainment and torture of Seva and his friends, is stalled in spite of large amounts of evidence. Prosecutor "loses" different documents regarding the case, sometimes he just "forgets" to make another move in the investigation. It is obvious the state takes this issue very seriously: either Seva goes to prison - and torturers in militia uniform are thus absolved of any charges, or state admits numerous evsukovs (militia officer who has recently killed 2 and wounded several customers at the local grocery store using an unmarked gun from Chechnya) in russian militia.
It has been a common practice for law enforcement agencies in Russia for many years now to violently detain, beat up and torture random people on streets (disturbingly often in bright daylight in full view of numerous witnesses), then charge them with fake civil disobedience or felony to make them fearful of repression in case they decide to speak out. Cases are too numerous to mention, with scale varying from apprehension a few illegal immigrants in order to squeeze some cash for release (any city or town in Russia) to riot cops (OMON) running amok, beating up and terrorizing whole town - Blagoveshensk, Bashkiria (2005.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2005/01n/n01n-s00.shtml). People are afraid to voice their opinion, those who do are beaten up and threatened by same very cops, and basically populace is taught (with police baton) to take this for granted.
It is evident that we are living in times, when virtually anyone can fall a victim to police brutality. Our historical experience shows how easily the state can "take care of" people, when they are silent and separated. But together we can stand up to injustice!
We call for a Global Day of Action in support of Seva Ostapov on July the 18th!
Please support us with solidarity actions in your city or town!
Together against police brutality!
If you cannot support us with actions on July the 18th, please do so on July 17th or 19th.
More about this campaign in Russian:
avtonom.org, ru.indymedia.org, ikd.ru, copylefter.livejournal.com, streetsmedia.livejournal.com