A Russian anti-war activist in Moscow was beaten and raped by police with a dumbbell after he recited a poem condemning President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, his lawyer said.
Artyom Kamardin, 31, was arrested on Monday along with his girlfriend Alexandra Popova during a raid on their apartment, the independent Russian newspaper. Novaya Gazeta Europe told,
Speaking to the outlet, an unnamed source said that police in riot gear “brutally beat Coumarin and put a dumbbell in his anal opening.”
Popova told the newspaper and news site OVD-Info that she also suffered violence at the hands of armed police, who she said pulled her hair, kicked it and covered her face with superglue and stickers.
Popova also said that officers threatened her with gang rape after showing her a recording of Kamardin’s torture.
“They told me that five of them would rape me,” said the woman.
Kamardin’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov confirmed Popova’s account of the raid, verifying that his client He was beaten with a dumbbell and was subjected to indecency.
The raid comes a day after Comardin recited his poem, “Kill me, militiaman,” during the annual public poetry reading in Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square. Maduza.io. informed of,
The abusive poem Comardin wrote in 2015, a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, is highly critical of Putin’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.
President’s recent decision to mobilize at least 300,000 men Protests have erupted across the country to bolster Russia’s battered forces, and thousands of military-age people have to flee abroad.
While in police custody, the apparently injured Comardin was forced to apologize for his conduct, which was videotaped and shared on the Kremlin Telegram channel.
“I apologize, apologize, and repent for what I said yesterday in Triumfalnaya Square in front of the multinational Russian people.” The battered poet says in the recording.
Solovyov said that Kamardin was hospitalized, with bruises all over his body and wounds in the chest.
The 31-year-old activist has since been charged with inciting hatred, which carries a prison sentence of up to six years.
Popova and their mutual friend Aleksandr Menyukov, who were present in the apartment during the raid, were also detained but later released. It is being told that both have suffered multiple injuries.
Popova and Menyukov are now listed as witnesses in a criminal case.