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Jailed Russian Opposition Activist Mokhnatkin Cuts Own Wrists


A Russian opposition activist sentenced to four and a half years in prison for assaulting police has cut his wrists to protest his incarceration.

Sergei Mokhnatkin was sentenced in December after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers on December 31, 2013 during a protest in Moscow.

On April 3, the Moscow City Court upheld the sentence.

Mokhnatkin's lawyer, Denis Levin, who visited his client in the detention center in Moscow on April 20, told For Human Rights organization that Mokhnatkin had slit his wrists on April 17 after he was informed that he would be transferred to a penal colony out of the Russian capital.

Mokhnatkin, who is currently on hunger strike, was transferred to the detention center's medical unit, where he is receiving treatment, Levin said.

Mokhnatkin first came to prominence in 2009 when he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after being convicted of attacking a police officer during another opposition rally.

He was pardoned by then-President Dmitry Medvedev in April 2012.

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

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