Advocate associates prosecution of Stavropol activist with his activities

Mikhail Savostin, an oppositionist from the city of Mineralnye Vody, was arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs. He himself claims that the drugs have been planted to him, and his advocate believes his client is being prosecuted for political reasons.

Mikhail Savostin was detained on April 5, and on April 7, the City Court of Mineralnye Vody pronounced against him the pre-trail restriction measure in the form of detention for two months. On April 9, his advocate Vitaly Zubenko from the human rights group "Agora" filed a complaint against the Court's decision.

On April 5, in accordance with the protocol on the activist's detention, a car of Mikhail Savostin was stopped on the road from Mineralnye Vody, the "Meduza" reports. According to the law enforcement bodies, Mikhail Savostin dropped a package under a car's wheel and his action provoked the search. The law enforcers say that another package was found in the oppositionist's "left outer jeans pocket", and it contained a substance which the policemen identified as marijuana.

Mikhail Savostin himself claims that the drugs were planted to him by the security forces.

Vitaly Zubenko believes that the arrest of the activist may be connected with his political opposition activities, since he has been "closely watched" for a long time.

According to the advocate, in the past year, Mikhail Savostin and his colleagues were engaged in exposing corruption schemes, which, they believed, involved a top-ranking official in the Mineralnye Vody urban district.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.