Moscow's Tagansky District Court has sentenced 21-year-old Magomed Gasanov to 13 days of administrative arrest after he was detained on November 7 during a mass police raid in the Kitay-gorod area. This was reported on November 9 by "Ostrozhno, Novosti," citing the court case file. Gasanov was charged under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation: disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer. According to law enforcement, the detainee refused to present his passport and get into the patrol vehicle. The report was submitted to the court on November 9 and processed that same day.
Circumstances of detention and defense position
According to the police report, Gasanov refused to comply with the officers' demands to enter the police van. He was held at the Tagansky police station for two nights before being brought to court on November 9. At the hearing, the young man partially admitted his guilt: he denied intentionally disobeying orders, explaining that he "didn't immediately understand the situation." The court, as reported by the news outlet, took into account that Gasanov is officially unemployed and imposed the maximum administrative arrest term for this article—13 days.
Context: mass raid near Gorka Park on November 7
Journalists from "Ostrozhno, Novosti" link Gasanov's detention to a mass police raid that took place on the evening of November 7 in the vicinity of Gorka Park on Bolshoy Spasoglinishchevsky Lane, as well as in nearby bars and on Chistye Prudy. By various estimates, between 150 and 300 young people were detained during the operation, including minors. The detainees were taken to the Basmanny and Tagansky police stations. According to the detainees themselves, they were offered military service contracts while in custody, and some adults were handed military summonses. The police, in turn, referred to the operation as "preventive measures."
A wave of court filings
On November 9, a number of reports under articles regarding petty hooliganism and police disobedience were filed with Moscow's Basmanny and Tagansky courts. According to "Ostrozhno, Novosti" and Activatica, there are 12 such reports; the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper indicates 13. It remains unclear whether all of them are directly connected to the Kitay-gorod arrests or if some relate to other incidents. Human rights activists, commenting on the practice of mass detentions and serving summonses at police stations, have labeled it illegal.
What is known about the raid
The November 7 raid was one of the largest in central Moscow in recent times. Detainees reported that physical force was used against them in the stations, that they were threatened, and denied water. Adults at the Tagansky station were served military summonses and offered contracts with the Ministry of Defense for military service. The police have not disclosed details of the operation, limiting their statements to "preventive measures." The fate of the other detainees mentioned in the court filings was not known at the time of publication.
