Putin critic Kosenko confined to psychiatric ward

BBC News, 8 October 2013

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.