Volunteers have identified one of the policemen who broke “Mediazone” journalist David
Frenkel’s arm while trying to force him into leaving the polling station. The incident was
caught on camera.
The incident occurred on June, 30 at Saint Petersburg polling station # 2191 during the
general vote regarding Putin’s constitutional amendments. Despite the journalist offering
no resistance whatsoever, he was manhandled and left with a broken arm. The claim was
denied by the MVD (Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs) regardless of clear evidence. The
cops in question themselves have stated: “nobody pushed him, he fell and broke his arm
himself”.
July, 23 its became known that the case was far from over. The victim David Frenkel was
summoned by St.Petersburg MVD department, where 3 prosecution reports have been
drawn against him as a result: disobeying a police order (article 19.3 of Administrative
Offenses Code), hindering the work of election committee (article 5.69), and breach of
the self-quarantine regime (article 20.6.1). He was forced to attend personally despite the
injury.
One of the cops who tackled the journalist, the one responsible for breaking his arm by
first twisting it and then making a punch into the victim’s forearm, has been identified as
Denis Yurievich Dmitriev, police badge # 009175. “Mediazone” activists have found his
VK page, while members of a Telegram-channel called “Open Media” have uncovered his
resume that the future policeman had been using for job hunt back in 2016.
Denis Yurievich Dmitriev was born on January 15, 1994 (currently 26 years of age) in
Saint Petersburg.
In 2014 he graduated from the Department of Finance, Economics and Law of “Petrovsky
College” University, with a lawyer’s diploma.
In 2016 he was “doing an internship in law enforcement; courts; guardianship and trusteeship agencies”. After that, he was looking for an assistant lawyer’s vacancy and was
ready for a monthly salary of 22,000 rubles.
Further places of employment are yet unknown, as is the date he entered the police force.
E-mail: dendmitriev@yandex.ru
VKontakte: https://vk.com/id11693034 (deleted)
According to Article 1 of the Federal Law № 3-ФЗ “On The Police” from February 7,
2011, applying special measures should be carried out based on clear legal
regulation and in strict accordance with the law.
The victimized journalist had not been making any illegal or potentially dangerous actions
and had full right to be present at the polling station but despite that the cops, including
Mr. Dmitriev, considered it acceptable to commit unlawful use of force, which led to
serious injury, and should be punishable by law in accordance with Article 286 of
Russian Criminal Code.
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