MOSCOW, February 17 (RIA Novosti) – Four suspected participants in violent anti-migrant protests in a Moscow suburb last year were amnestied and released last week, Russian media reported on Monday citing a lawyer.
The defense team appealed for a pardon in December as part of a presidential amnesty marking the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. The request was left unanswered, and the lawyers lodged complaints to the Investigative Committee and the ombudsman’s office.
“They were amnestied after we lodged a complaint to the Investigative Committee. An investigator called me and said the supervising authority ordered to pardon everyone,” the website quoted lawyer Oleg Anikanov as saying.
The Rossiiskaya Planeta news site said one of the suspects, 23-year-old Timur Musikayev, was released on February 11. The following day, police released Artyom Novikov, 23, and Andrei Titarenko, 18.
A fourth suspect was also pardoned, but his name was withheld because he was under age. The suspects had been charged with hooliganism.
Anti-migrant riots rocked Moscow’s southern district of Biryulyovo in mid-October after a man identified as an immigrant from a former Soviet state stabbed a 25-year-old local man to death.
More than 20 people were injured in clashes during the protest, including six police officers. Nearly 400 suspected participants were detained in the wake of the rioting.
