Jails in Moscow Crammed with Navalny’s Supporters

The video, shot by a man detained in a Moscow protest, shows a group of people jammed into a police minibus. One of them says on the recording that they had already been held there for nine hours, with some forced to stand because of overcrowding and no access to food, water or bathrooms.

Another video taken in a dingy holding cell intended for eight inmates shows 28 men crammed inside awaiting transfer, with no mattresses on the cots and a filthy pit latrine-like toilet.

Detainees are recounting their miserable experiences as Moscow jails were overwhelmed following mass arrests from protests in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny this week. They described long waits to be processed through the legal system and crowded conditions with few coronavirus precautions.

More than 11,000 protesters were reported detained across Russia in the pro-Navalny rallies on two straight weekends last month and in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Tuesday, after he was ordered by court to serve nearly three years in prison.

Some of the protesters were beaten on the streets by riot police or subjected to other abuse. Human rights advocates said many police precincts refused to let lawyers in to help detainees, citing what is known as the "Fortress" protocol.

"Many violations (of detainees' rights) we've seen before. … But probably the scale we see now is much scarier than before," Alexandra Bayeva, coordinator with the OVD-Info rights group that monitors political arrests, told The Associated Press.

While it accounted for less than half of the detentions, the capital's jails quickly filled up as scores of people were sentenced by the courts. Many received misdemeanor charges that resulted in jail terms of five to 15 days.

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