Anarchist Alexey Sutuga was arrested and remanded in Moscow - help needed

April 21, 2012 Avtonom

Alexey Sutuga, anarchist, anti-fascist and the member of  "Autonomous Action"  was arrested on Tuesday evening, April 17, in Moscow. It happened during fundraising effort in support of anti-fascists prisoners. It became aware almost after a day after arrest that Alexey is now in the remand prison number two which is also known as "Butyrka".

The police accuse him of the same charges as anti-fascist Alexey Olesinov who has already been in custody for a month - complicity in the incident at the Moscow club "Vozdukh", on 17 December, 2011, when the Nazis working for the security attacked the guests of the concert and then blamed anti-fascists in this assault.

Voluntary donations for the support of anti-fascists in detention, particularly of Alexey Olesinov and Igor Kharchenko, were gathered in the center of Moscow, on April 17. The event was organized by activists of the anti-racist human rights initiative "Direct Help". About 15 people, including Alexey Sutuga, showed up. Two police officers came up to the group at 20.30, according to witnesses. They identified themselves and asked why there were too much garbage around the bench.

After that the police began to ask all who was there at that time to show the documents. When people refused to show them, two plain clothes officials appeared instantly, out of nowhere and then about 5-6 of their colleagues showed up. One of them showed his card, muttered something like "the criminal investigation Department, guys", and said "get him!". Police officers obeyed him, took Alexey and led him off to the direction of highway.

At the same moment all the people in plain clothes followed them, no longer pay any attention to the rest of the crowd, although they had promised to arrest all those who have no documents to the police station. Among those who arrested Alexey, there was a well-known Moscow FBI agent Evgeny Platov, better known as "Zhenya the FSB" (more about him and his pursuit of the Moscow anarchists you can read here: http://avtonom.org/news/feisy-vs-anarkhisty-kak-boitsy-nevidimogo-foront... - in Russian language)

It's worth noting that a group of anarchists, including Alexey, had been detained a week earlier by the same plain clothes officers, but they were released without any charges.

Sutuga's family and friends didn't know about his whereabouts for almost 24 hours. He didn't answer the phone. The information about his whereabouts was only released in the evening, April 18. It was reported that he is in "Butyrka" and, apparently, Basmanny district court quickly sanctioned pre-trial detention of the anti-fascists.

He is charged with "hooliganism" (Article 213, Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code). The press service of the Moscow police reported that Alexey Sutuga is charged in connection with the same case as Alexey Olesinov.

Recently it became aware of an attempt of fabricating a second criminal case on Olesinov: on April 17 police presented him a a young man who claims to have been attacked by Alexey on December 4th, 2011, though at this day Olesinov was posting articles on the Internet. (for more details: http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/26512/index.php - in Russian).

"The case against the well-known anti-fascist Alexey Olesinov, now remanded, has been investigated for several months and is now collapsing. It seems like the human rights campaign in support of Olesinov began to irritate the police. If they had something against Sutuga, then they would have followed the legal procedures for this case. And it turns out that they have just arrested a person and kept him almost a whole day incommunicado. It looks like the policemen have a rich imagination"- commented a participant of " Autonomous Action".

For more information about the incident in club "Vozdukh", see here:
https://avtonom.org/en/people/aleksei-olesinov

For other persecutions of anarchists and anti-fascists in Moscow, see here:
https://avtonom.org/en/people/antti-rautiainen,
http://anarcho-news.info/news-534 (in Russian)

Currently funds are urgently needed for legal costs of Sutuga. You may donate through Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow, instructions are available here:
http://wiki.avtonom.org/en/index.php/Donate