29 Jul 2018 21:28

Police files protocols against activists detained following Moscow rally; detainees released

MOSCOW. July 29 (Interfax) - Activists detained following a rally over pension age hike in central Moscow were released from a police station after protocols for breaching rules regulating mass events were filed against them on Sunday evening, Libertarian Party of Russia, whose leaders organized the rally, said.

"Now, all of the rally organizers detained earlier in the afternoon have been released," the party told Interfax.

Libertarian Party deputy chairman Kirill Samodurov told Interfax that an administrative offence protocol was filed on party leader Sergei Boiko under Part 1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences for "violation by a public event organizer of procedures regulating organization or conduct of a meeting, a rally, a demonstration, a procession or a picket", while activists Mikhail Chichkov and Oleg Stepanov saw protocols filed against them under Part 5 of the same article for similar violations that they allegedly committed as public event participants.

According to a protocol published by Stepanov on Twitter, he was accused of shouting some slogans that did not correspond with the event's declared subject.

As reported earlier, following the rally against plans to raise eligibility ages for pensions that was held on Sakharov Avenue in downtown Moscow on Sunday, police detained the coordinator of opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Moscow headquarters Oleg Stepanov, who spoke at the rally, Libertarian Party leader Sergei Boiko, who had submitted papers for the rally's authorization as the applicant, and rally moderator Mikhail Chichkov.