UN experts call on Moscow to release protesters

GENEVA

The UN human rights experts on Wednesday called on Russia to release "immediately everyone arrested in peaceful demonstrations" across the country on Sunday.

"Reports say up to 1,000 peaceful demonstrators, including many young people, who took to the streets following allegations of corruption against the prime minister, were arrested by police who had deemed the protests unlawful," UN experts said in a statement on Wednesday.

Russian police on Sunday detained more than 500 people during protests which took place in several cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg.

UN experts said a number of these protesters were subsequently sentenced to imprisonment and fines and that human rights activists were also arrested and sentenced to jail after live-streaming the protests and a couple of journalists covering the demonstrations were arrested and later released.

"We call on the authorities to release immediately all protesters still being detained, and to quash the sentences imposed on them," the UN statement said.

"While we welcome the release of arrested journalists, their arrest should not have taken place in the first place as this represents an attack not only on the safety of the individual journalist but also on the public’s right to information about the protests," the experts said.

UN experts urged Russia to "fulfill its obligation under international human rights law to protect and facilitate the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of opinion and expression, and freedom of association, and not to interfere with the exercise of these rights."

A Russian court on Monday jailed opposition Alexey Navalny for 15 days on charges of resisting arrest following street demonstrations in several major cities on Sunday. Navalny appeared in court after having been detained during the high-profile anti-corruption protests. He was also fined 20,000 rubles ($350).

According to Russian news agency TASS, Navalny described himself as the "organizer" of the protest and insisted it was legal. However, the Kremlin described Sunday's "unauthorized rally" as a provocation. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused protest organizers of lying about the legality of the demonstrations, according to TASS.