Amnesty International is calling for the mass riot charges to be dropped against all Bolotnaya defendants. The organization considers Moscow’s ongoing Bolotnaya Square trial as a purely political attempt to paint the protesters as intent on mass violence and discourage future protest.Amnesty International has recognised a further seven of those currently standing trial as prisoners of conscience, and considers all of those accused of “participation in mass riots” in connection with the Bolotnaya square protest on May 6 2012 to be victims of gross injustice. “What really happened on Bolotnaya Square was not the quelling of a riot, but the crushing of a protest. What has happened in the Bolotnaya trial has not been the exposing of orchestrated violence, but rather the exposing of a criminal justice system that is entirely malleable to dictates of its political masters,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Director. Please see:Anatomy of injustice: The Bolotnaya square trialFor more information and to arrange an interview please contact:Lydia Aroyo, Press Officer, Amnesty International, International Secretariat at [email protected] +44 (0) 7771 796 350 (UK mobile) or +44 (0)20 7413 5599.
