|
Leonid Razvozzhaev, an
activist of 'Left Front', is a welder by trade. He also
worked as the manager of a small business and in the
newspaper 'Independent Observer' and was an amateur
boxer in the past. He is married and has two children.
To the moment of his arrest he was a helper of Parliamentary deputy Ilia Ponomarev and a member of
the Coordination Committee of the Opposition.
The reason for his
arrest was the documentary 'The Anatomy of Protest'
shown on TV on 5th of October 2012 in which he was
portrayed as a terrorist employed by Georgian politicians.
Razvozzhaev was accused of the organization of mass disorder
including on 6th of May on Bolotnaya (Swamp) Square.
He was kidnapped near the the United Nations office in
Kiev, Ukraine immediately after he applied for refugee
status (he fled to Ukraine after seeing the documentary)
and was smuggled back across the border. Then he was tortured
and eventually broke down and signed the demanded
'confession' that he and several other members of
'Left Front', including its leader Segei Udaltsov, were
preparing for the mass riots on Russian Federation
territory and also of their
involvement in
mass disorder on the 6th of May. According to this
statement, the mass disorder was financed by the
Georgian politicians to overthrow the Russian government.
During his court hearing,
Razvozzhaev renounced this
statement affirming that it was given under torture and
threats to murder his wife and children. In the court Razvozzhaev
pointed out a person who had tortured him
leading to the additional charge of making false
accusations against the authorities. He is now charged
with making a false statement about
kidnapping which never happened according to the
prosecutor,
illegally crossing the border, and the organization of mass disorder.
During his subsequent
detention
Razvozzhaev has had surgery
for the removal of a bullet (from a wound in 2002),
suffered at least one heart attack, he has extremely
high blood pressure and is subject to ongoing
psychological torture. He was moved widely around the
prisons throughout the country, and is now in Moscow
prison awaiting for the major show trial of the year:
the hearing of his and 'Left Front' leader Sergei Udaltsov's
case (Udaltsov is
not permitted to receive or answer letters). |
