HRC "Memorial" is concerned with detention in Moscow of the head of the Anti-War Club

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" is concerned with detention of human rights activist Mikhail Kriger, coordinator of the Anti-War Club, who was a regular participant of pickets against the policy of the Kremlin in Northern Caucasus and the war in Chechnya, in particular.

"We have an impression that illegal actions of militiamen are components of the campaign of purposeful illegal prosecution of Mikhail Kriger," the message of the HRC "Memorial" runs.

Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the HRC "Memorial" and a member of the Advisory Board under the Ombudsman in the Russian Federation, addressed a statement on violation of Mikhail Kriger's rights to the General Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika.

Mikhail Kriger was detained in Moscow on March 3 near the exit from "Krasnye Vorota" Metro Station. The eyewitnesses of the detention and photo and video records evidence that M. Kriger's detention was not related to any offence committed by him, Mr Orlov asserts.

In relation to Mr Kriger, the employees of the OVD (Interior Division) drew up two protocols on administrative offences under Articles 20.2 and 19.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

The court cancelled M. Kriger's detention, on which fact Judge Demidovich informed at judicial session the representative of the OVD of the Krasnoselskiy District.

However, employees of the OVD "Krasnoselskiy", Mr Orlov's statement runs, tried to illegally detain Kriger again, right after the judicial session, by physically hampering him for more than two hours to leave the courtroom of magistrate judges of the Basmanny District.