Police in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg have detained a well-known rights activist for robbery, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Aleksei Sokolov, a member of the Public Monitoring Commission dealing with human rights in Russia's penitentiary system, has been officially accused in a robbery that took place five years ago in the town of Bogdanovichi, in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
In May 2004, several welding units and nonferrous metals were stolen from the Uraltermosvar plant in Bogdanovichi.
A spokesman for the regional Interior Affairs Department, Valery Gorelykh, told journalists that Sokolov violently resisted his detention.
Sokolov's colleagues told RFE/RL that the accusations are groundless and called his detention a provocation.