Photo: Pavel Krisevich's Telegram channel
A justice of the peace in Skopin sentenced Elena Morgunova to 14 days of administrative detention for refusing to take a drug test (Part 1 of Article 6.9 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses). The human rights media outlet Slovo Zashchite (A Word for the Defense) described her arrests as “carousel arrests,” a practice in which a person is repeatedly detained on successive administrative charges.
Morgunova had already spent 10 days in a special detention facility and was due to be released. However, a police officer asked her to undergo a medical examination because he allegedly thought her pupils were dilated. Morgunova asked to wait for her lawyer, but the officer treated this as a refusal.
“An operative at the Skopin police station decided that someone who had just been released from a special detention facility after 10 days could be under the influence of drugs,” Krisevich wrote on his Telegram channel.
Elena Morgunova lives in France with actionist Pavel Krisevich, who emigrated after serving a prison sentence in a case involving a political performance. She came to Ryazan Oblast to visit relatives but was detained on August 28. A court sentenced her to 10 days of administrative detention for disobeying a police officer (Article 19.3 of Russia’s Code of Administrative Offenses). Morgunova’s lawyer said that Federal Security Service (FSB) officers humiliated her in the detention facility and threatened to throw her dog out onto the street.
