An incident occurred at the Moscow “Gardener” market, which was witnessed and then suffered by dozens of people, mostly market workers, immigrants from Tajikistan.
A day after the incident, when witnesses to the incident published their video evidence of what happened, the Russian police placed full responsibility on the dozens of people who witnessed the incident.
Official information
On December 16, the Interfax agency, citing the press service of the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, reported that police officers detained more than 80 foreigners who tried to prevent the arrest of the suspect. According to them, on December 15, in the capital’s Kapotnya district, while a local police officer was checking the driver’s documents, a 21-year-old foreign citizen tried to escape in a car, dragging a policeman for several meters. Rosbalt, citing MVD-media, reported that when checking documents, the driver tried to escape in his car and dragged a policeman behind him for several meters, who tried to detain him. After which the young man got out of the car and hit the policeman several times.
“The offender suffered a suspected epileptic seizure, the police officer provided him with first aid and called an ambulance.” Allegedly, after this, the taxi driver received medical assistance and was released. The information immediately states that a criminal case was opened “on the use of violence against a representative of the authorities and insulting a representative of the authorities and he was detained.” Information about the identity of the detainee is not provided.
In addition, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, on Saturday “82 citizens were detained and taken to territorial departments, in respect of whom protocols on administrative offenses were drawn up (Article 20.1 “Petty hooliganism”, Article 18.8 “Violation of migration legislation” of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
What do eyewitnesses say?
The incident that occurred at the Moscow market was reported to Radio Ozodi in the early morning of December 16 by website users – Tajiks working at the Sadovod market. In particular, according to the stories of some eyewitnesses and video recordings that were sent to Radio Ozodi, the incident actually occurred with the participation of a taxi driver from Tajikistan. According to one source, who did not want his name published, the police actually used a stun gun on the taxi driver who was trying to escape.
“Yesterday the police wanted to stop a Tajik taxi driver. He didn’t stop and drove away. They managed to stop him and one of the police officers used a stun gun, causing him to lose consciousness. When the Tajiks saw this and began to be indignant, they invited additional forces,” an eyewitness said in a conversation with Radio Ozodi.
According to him, the guy lay there unconscious for several hours and only after that they took him to the hospital. According to him, police officers from the Department of Internal Affairs of the Kapotnya district, who have long-standing friendly relations with the market management, came to the market.
When asked by Radio Ozodi to comment on what happened, the police officer on duty said that “if you are related to the case, come personally to the department,” and “if from the press, then we do not give comments at all.”
The video recordings that users sent to Radia Ozodi show that many eyewitnesses of what was happening called on the police to act according to the law and justice. There are calls to inform the Tajik Embassy in Moscow.
Attempts by Radio Ozodi to find out the opinion of the diplomatic mission about what happened did not yield any results. On December 16, no one answered both official telephone numbers of the diplomatic mission.
Hundreds of Tajik citizens work at the Sadovod market, one of the largest markets in Moscow. In August this year, at least 60 Tajiks working at this market reported being groundlessly detained, despite the fact that all their documents were in order.
Source: Ozodi
