BBC News, 8
October 2013
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Kosenko had undergone outpatient psychiatric treatment before his arrest |
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A Russian
court has ordered a critic of President Vladimir Putin to be committed to a
psychiatric hospital over clashes with police at a protest.
The court
ruled that Mikhail Kosenko was not responsible for his actions because he has a
mental illness.
Kosenko was
accused of rioting at a protest in Moscow in May last year, on the eve of Mr
Putin's inauguration.
Amnesty
International called the ruling an "abhorrent return to the Soviet-era
practices used to silence dissent".
"Mikhail
Kosenko is a prisoner of conscience put behind bars for peacefully exercising
his right to protest and should be released immediately," said AI's Europe
and Central Asia programme director John Dalhuisen.
'Danger to
society'
Kosenko had
undergone outpatient psychiatric treatment before his arrest - which his
defence team insists should continue.
"A
conclusion by expert psychiatrists says that he is a danger to society and
therefore should be isolated in a psychiatric facility," his lawyer Valery
Shukhardin told AFP.
"It's
unclear to us where these conclusions come from. They are not justified by
anything except the charges laid against him."
Mr
Shukhardin said the defence team would appeal against the sentence.
Kosenko is
one of a dozen activists accused of mass disorder over the Bolotnaya rally, on
6 May 2012.
It was the
culmination of a wave of protests which began in December 2011, following Mr
Putin's party's victory in parliamentary elections.
Tens of
thousands of people had marched to the square. Police say protesters turned on
them with metal bars and flagstones.
Opposition
leaders say the authorities provoked the clashes.
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