Anarchist prisoner in Russia

Anarchist Black Cross of MoscowP. is an eco/animal/peace activist who has been jailed in Russia. 

Our friend and comrade, anarchist P. is in a serious trouble - already for 6
weeks he has been in a remand prison, charged of robbery by illegal trespass
(according to Russian criminal codex, these charges would result from 7 to
12 years of imprisonment). And all of this just for his attempt to take back
what belongs to him.

P. turned 19 years old this April, he is living in a poor and depressed
region in South-West of Russia. He has been active in various
anti-authoritarian projects for almost two years already, in ecological protest
camps, Food Not Bombs, animal rights issues, organization of concerts and street
actions. In summer of 2006 he participated to Libertarian Forum in Moscow and
protests against G8 in St. Petersburg, in Petersburg he got arrested and was
sentenced for 2 days in prison.

In autumn he returned to his small town, and began organizing
anti-militarist actions, cleaning forest from trash, he kept writing
articles and poems. There was no any anarchist activity in his home town, but
he managed to find some interested people and they planned to organize a concert
for Mayday, but eventually just a small demonstration was organized as at this
point P. was in prison already.


In December 2006 P. was working with his father, repairing home of a
relative of  an influential businessman, who owns the biggest retail store
in his hometown. Work was ordered by mother of this businessman, who turned
out to be a swindler, and eventually she did not paid good part of the work
(1500 rubles, that is around 50 euros. Average wage of a blue-collar worker in
hometown of P. is 150 euros a month).

After numerous phone calls, it became clear that boss was not about to pay
for the work. As usual with this kind of work in Russia, there was no any
written contract whatsoever made with the boss - thus there was no any legal ways
for P. to get compensation for his labor (not that such a contract would
have mean a lot anyway - Russian courts make very seldom settlements in interest
of the workers, and even if they do, nobody is enforcing these decisions).

In late march, P. decided to expropriate some property of the boss in order
to get back what these rich people owned him. But unexpectedly boss was home,
and a conflict took place between them, and even more unluckily son-of-law
of the boss showed up, called police and P. was arrested and imprisoned
with charges of "robbery by illegal trespassing" (statute 162 paragraph 3 of
Russian criminal codex).

Unfortunate result of P's conflict with the rich and privileged boss was
that she ended up to hospital - exact course of events is yet unknown to us,
but whatever he did we consider it justified. Relatives of this bourgeois
woman have promised to do anything they may in order for P. to be in prison
as long as possible, and they also promised that P. will not have a lengthy live
outside prison when he is released. P's mother was fired from her job the
first day following the incident.

Current strategy of defense is to change charges to "vigilantism", which is
a much less Serious charge - maximal sentence is 5 years and even probation
is possible. This is a very difficult legal battle, thus we consider that
another lawyer besides one already hired by poor parents of P. is necessary.
Court should take place in June.

At this point of the process, we will not distribute any personal details of
P. If you are interested to help P. with court expenses or you just want to
write him a letter, write to adm@avtonom.org, and we will pass letters to him.