St Petersburg Police Station 33. Source: Google Maps.
We continue our partnership with OVD-Info, an NGO that monitors politically-motivated arrests in Russia. Every Friday, we bring you the latest information on freedom of assembly.
Some of those detained at the 12 June anti-corruption rally in St Petersburg have revealed how police officers at Police Station 33 released pepper spray into the cells and refused to let people out. After our publication, the Petersburg police department confirmed that police officers had in fact used pepper gas at Station 33. The activists described how they began to feel unwell and to suffocate. Police officers refused to provide medical assistance, saying that it would “pass off”. However, they then moved the detainees into the basement cells, where they were held overnight.
