Judge Gayane Akopyan of the Nagatinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced SOTAvision journalist Antonina Favorskaya to 10 days of administrative arrest under a protocol of disobedience to the demands of security forces (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). A Mediazona correspondent reported this from the courtroom.
During the hearing, the judge read out the protocol drawn up by the police. It says that Favorskaya was detained on the evening of March 17 after she refused to show documents to the security forces. “She waved her arms demonstratively, grabbed her uniform, and tried to run away,” the protocol says. The journalist noted that she had no thoughts of escaping, and they only asked her for documents at the police department, and she showed them.
Witness for the defense
Photo: Alexandra Astakhova
Musatova spoke in detail about what happened on air on the YouTube channel «Live» nail». According to the girl, the three of them came to the grave of Alexei Navalny during the last hour of opening of the Borisov cemetery, left flowers and left after a while.
Favorskaya, Musatova and Anna spent the next three hours in a nearby cafe. “At some point we realized that we were surrounded by about seven people, most were wearing masks — some in civilian clothes, some not in civilian clothes. They said that information had appeared that the three of us had committed a crime, an anonymous source told them about this,” added Musatova.
According to the girl, the detention was “quite harsh.” When Favorskaya and Musatova reached for their phones to put them in their pockets, the security forces began shouting about the ban on the use of phones, and then hit the Living Nail interlocutor on the hand so that the device fell to the floor. Favorskaya fell on the table due to the fact that they leaned on her from above. On the way to the car, the security forces began to mention Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code. Anna was released, and the other two journalists were taken to the police department.
Already at the department, Favorskaya was taken for interrogation, and Musatova was told to wait. By her count, almost three hours passed before she was released. All this time, a lawyer was not allowed into the police department. What “crime” the security forces were talking about is still unknown to Musatova.