A Russian man who was jailed following antigovernment protests held nationwide on March 26 has filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In an interview published in the newspaper Kommersant on April 24, Agora human rights group chief Pavel Chikov said that Sochi resident Vitaly Nibiyeridze's lawsuit was the first complaint lodged with the ECHR in connection with the clampdown on protesters.
Police detained more than 1,000 people in Moscow alone over the anticorruption rallies organized by opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, the biggest demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin's government since a wave of protests in 2011-12.
Nibiyeridze was detained while trying to organize a march in Sochi. He spent eight days in jail after a court found him guilty of holding an unsanctioned mass gathering.
His lawyer, Mikhail Benyash, said that Nibiyeridze's suit accuses the authorities in the Black Sea resort city of violating his freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly, and his right to a fair trial.
Chikov said that hundreds of similar complaints will be filed with the ECHR in the near future.
