24 July 2008, 11:36
In Sochi, two residents of Imereti Valley arrested for resisting court marshals
On July 23, the magistrate court in Sochi sentenced two residents of the Imereti Valley to 12-day arrest for resisting and threatening the authorities, and for participation in a non-sanctioned rally.
Ruslan Piskunov and David Imechkyan were detained a couple of hours after the collision of court marshals and militiamen with residents of the Imereti Valley who protested against confiscation of their land plots in favour of constructing Olympic objects.
We remind you that the conflict where the detainees were recognized as participants took place on July 22, when geodetic specialists and court marshals tried to get into the household of Svetlana Droficheva at 115 Nizhneimeretinskaya Street for making measurements of her land plot.
At the gate and in the yard of Droficheva's house, about 200 persons got together, equipped with sticks, household appliances and incendiary mix bottles; they blocked the way for representatives of the power. The defenders of the house assert that truncheons and pepper gas were used against them.
Meanwhile, the authorities have a different version of the incident. The statement of the Department of the Federal Service of Court Marshals for the Krasnodar Territory, which was promulgated yesterday, says that "its employees never went beyond their powers at ensuring the cadastral works" and "such means of individual defence like gas bottles were not used by the employees."