Russian art group Voina Arrested and Beaten by the Police (Again!)

April 2, 2011 Infoshop News

Oleg Vorotnikov, Natalia “Kozlionok” Sokol, and Leonid Nikolaev were
arrested during the peaceful demonstration against violations of article
31 of russian constitution (freedom of peaceful assembly) along with many
other protesters. Oleg Vorotnikov and his 2-year old son Casper were taken
to the police station #28. Two policewomen took Casper to a separate
office, and Oleg hasn't seen him since. At the police station, Oleg was
severely beaten. The art-group's lawyer, Dmitriy Dinze, has managed to set
Oleg free, with the help of emergency ambulance brigade. After a short
while he left the emergency hospital, where the doctors have officially
examined the bruises after police battery.

Dmitriy Dinze is trying to set free other activists, who are held at the
police station #78 (Chekhov st. 15) but so far with no results. The cops
do not let nor the lawyer neither the ambulance brigade see them. As Dinze
said to Oleg “Leonid and Kozlionok are beaten up there. The cops turned on
some loud music and just beat them.” One of the protesters held in this
police station called Dinze and told him about the battery.

Dinze called the city police board and told them about the violations. Tho
police superiors came to the police station, but after a short
conversation with the policemen of #78 they just left. He tried for nearly
5 hours to get inside and to see the arrested, but the officer on duty
bluntly refused to let him in.

Casper was taken to a children's hospital. There he's registered as an
unidentified child. Dmitriy Dinze and Elena Kostileva have called the
hospital to let the doctors know his name, date of birth, etc. But they
demanded proof. Natalia Sokol, mother of the child, has all Casper's
papers, but she's being held by the police and not allowed to see the
lawyer. The biggest concern at the moment is that Casper will be taken to
an orphanage. Oleg Vorotnikov is trying to get his son from the hospital,
but without papers the doctors may as well refuse him.

Voina Group Activists Attacked and Beaten In St. Petersburg

March 4, 2011 en.free-voina.org

On March 3 in St. Petersburg around 5 p.m. three activists of the art
group Voina - Leonid Nikolayev, Oleg Vorotnikov, and Natalya Sokol - have
been attacked and severely beaten by seven plainclothes policemen. The
attackers reportedly shouted that they were from the city’s criminal
investigation department.

Vorotnikov and Nikolayev held a press conference earlier on March 3 in
which they told journalists about the poor conditions they faced in
Moscow’s pretrial detention center.

As a result Oleg Vorotnikov received bruises, Natalia Sokol got a serious
hand injury, Leonid Nikolayev - a head injury.  A 2-year-old Kasper also
suffered.

Fragment from Oleg Vorotnikov’s story:

  When we left the press conference in the Ligovsky prospect, we noticed
that we were followed by a group of typical thugs. We observed that
those were clearly anti-extremism officers… One police officer
attacked Lenya from behind. They waved their IDs but we couldn’t
examine them. They pushed baby pram away and hit Kasper against his
face causing a bruise on his left chick. Two others knocked Kozlyenok
down into the paddle and started kicking her. They injured her hand
very seriously. I managed to free myself from the officers who were
holding me and covered Kozlyenok with my body. The blows rained
against my back and head. Kozlyenok’s face was already bashed. What’s
more when they dragged her by hair, they pulled out one of her braids.
The officers were trying to take away a camera from her. But she held
it tightly. Activist Lyubka seized one of the officers and he bit her
hand…

The police officers managed to confiscate a camera memory card. The
artists were delivered to the traumatology station.