MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti) - Law-enforcers led a group of activists, including prominent rights campaigner Lev Ponomaryov, out of the Moscow office of the For Human Rights non-governmental organization.
A RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the site that Ponomaryov, opposition Yabloko party’s leader and Moscow mayor candidate Sergei Mitrokhin, along with two other people were “led out” of the building.
“No detentions were made to date. Police officers continue to perform their duty to maintain public order,” a spokesman for the Moscow police department said without elaborating.
Three ambulance vehicles also approached the building. The opposition-leaning Novaya Gazeta reported that they came to take “seven injured people.”
Russia’s NTV channel said police “stormed” the building after the organization refused to comply with the Moscow authorities’ demand to leave the office after their lease contract expired in February.
“At approximately 2:20 a.m. [Moscow time on Saturday, GMT 10:20 p.m. on Sunday], special police units burst into the building… beat me up and pulled outside,” NTV quoted Ponomaryov as saying.
Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin arrived to the office, but police did not let him in.
