Moscow court upholds ruling on compulsory treatment of man convicted for involvement in Bolotnaya riots
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld a lower court ruling on subjecting Mikhail Kosenko, a man tried in a case concerning riots during an opposition demonstration on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on May 6, 2012, to compulsory medical treatment.
Kosenko's lawyers had asked the court to order a comprehensive psychiatric examination of their client, arguing that his condition has changed in the past year and a half.
However, the appeal was declined on Tuesday, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courthouse.
Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky Court had found Kosenko guilty and ordered his compulsory medical treatment on October 8, 2013.
Judge Lyudmila Moskalenko ruled that, due to Kosenko's mental illness, he was exempted from imprisonment and would be placed in a mental facility. Before the sentence took effect, Kosenko was to stay at a pretrial detention center, the ruling said.
Numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, and Lev Ponomaryov, the leader of the group For Human Rights, condemned the ruling.
An opposition protest demonstration on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, which was previously agreed upon with the Moscow city government, turned into clashes between demonstrators and police. As many as 400 people were detained following the clashes. A criminal case was opened the same day on charges of calls for mass disorder (Russian Criminal Code Article 212) and violence against a law enforcement official (Article 318). The case was later combined with another one dealing with preparations for the organization of mass disorder on Russian territory.
