Sergei Mokhnatkin
Human rights defenders
1954-03-06
Deceased
Kotlas, Moscow
Biography
Sergei Mokhnatkin was accused of picking a fight with a police officer, who was filming him in the detention centre, and breaking his nose. Mokhnatkin wrote several statements that he had been beaten by the police. On 11 January 2010, a criminal case was opened against Sergei Mokhnatkin under part 2 of article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Use of violence against a representative of the authorities"), and on 26 February, a measure of restraint was chosen against him in a form of recognizance not to leave.
On 1 June 2010, the day after another rally of
Sergei Mokhnatkin was accused of picking a fight with a police officer, who was filming him in the detention centre, and breaking his nose. Mokhnatkin wrote several statements that he had been beaten by the police. On 11 January 2010, a criminal case was opened against Sergei Mokhnatkin under part 2 of article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Use of violence against a representative of the authorities"), and on 26 February, a measure of restraint was chosen against him in a form of recognizance not to leave.
On 1 June 2010, the day after another rally of "Strategy-31" on Triumfalnaya Square, which gathered about 2,000 people (one of the largest rallies of the campaign), Sergey Mokhnatkin was arrested. He was summoned for questioning ostensibly to identify those who had beaten him, and he was arrested in the office of investigator Alexei Petrachenko. In the pre-trial detention center, Mokhnatkin went on hunger strike in protest and starved for 8 days before the trial. He was beaten by the SIZO staff because he refused to be photographed and subjected to fingerprinting.
At the trial, Mokhnatkin demanded a full acquittal. Tverskoy court judge Alexandra Kovalevskaya removed nine defense witnesses from the courtroom. The prosecution witnesses, all police officers, did not appear at the trial. On 8 June, prosecutor L.A. Serguniaeva requested five years of imprisonment for Mokhnatkin.
On 9 June 2010, the court sentenced 56-year-old Sergei Mokhnatkin to two years and six months imprisonment in a general regime colony. On 23 April 2012, Mokhnatkin was pardoned by President Dmitry Medvedev.
On 31 December 2013, Mokhnatkin was detained at the "Strategy-31" rally on Triumfalnaya Square in Moscow. On 1 January 2014, it became known that Mokhnatkin was charged with using violence against a representative of the authorities. On 2 January he was placed in a pre-trial detention centre. The investigation ignored the fact that police colonel Sergei Shorin, whose attack Mokhnatkin was accused of, beat and strangled Mokhnatkin. In September 2014, Mokhnatkin was sent to the Serbsky Psychiatric Centre for expert evaluation. While he was there, his period of detention expired and he was released in October. On 10 December, the court sentenced him to four and a half years in a strict regime colony. Mokhnatkin did not attend the verdict and was put on a federal wanted list, but he appeared in court the same day and was taken into custody.
Already in the colony, Mokhnatkin was charged with a new case of insulting the head of the detachment. Mokhnatkin explained that the head of the detachment prevented him from sending his letters to various authorities. After that, Mokhnatkin was transferred to strict detention conditions. On 3 June 2016, Mokhnatkin was sentenced to 11 months of correctional labor, which was recalculated as an additional two months and three days to the total term. Later, the appeal instance reduced the additional term by one month.
In March 2016, when Mokhnatkin was about to be sent to the pre-trial detention center to participate in the trial in the abovementioned case, he was outraged that he was not shown the document based on which he was being transported, and lay down on the floor in protest. The officers forcibly dragged him into the car. After that, Mokhnatkin was charged with the fourth case - disorganization of the work of the correctional facility: according to the investigation, he hit the deputy assistant chief of the colony in the face. Mokhnatkin himself claimed that the staff beat him. It was found that he had a compression fracture of two lumbar vertebrae. On 20 March 2017, the court sentenced Mokhnatkin to two years in a penal colony, which was recalculated as two more months to the total term.
Mokhnatkin was then transferred to another colony with "special conditions of economic activity". In September 2018, the court assigned him two and a half years of administrative supervision after his release. In November, shortly before the end of his sentence, it became known that Mokhnatkin was charged with a fifth case, again about the disorganization of the colony's activities. He was accused of refusing to be taken from the prison hospital. Mokhnatkin himself suspected that the reason for the case was his conflict with the colony staff, who interrupted his speech via videoconference, twisted him, dragged him into the corridor, and broke his back.
On 14 December 2018, the court decided to release Mokhnatkin from custody. He gave the recognizance not to leave the country.
While serving his sentence, Mokhnatkin repeatedly went on hunger strikes.
He died on 28 May 2020.