A Russian opposition activist slit her wrists in an act of courtroom protest in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk on Tuesday, a women’s rights group said.
The activist, Olga Suvorova, “cut her veins in protest in the courtroom” and was taken to hospital, the Soft Power women’s rights movement wrote on Telegram.
The group posted a video in which Suvorova held up her left arm, bleeding, and said: “It’s my sentence, I have the right, I protest against this sentence.”
Russia has ramped up its harsh crackdown on dissidents and opposition movements since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Zheleznodorozhny district court found Suvorova guilty of filing a false report against a police officer and fined her 125,000 rubles ($1,300).
In October 2023, Suvorova said she was attacked by a police officer who shoved her out of a police station, leaving her with bruises.
In December she was arrested at the airport in Krasnoyarsk and charged with making a false police report.
Soft Power said she was later forced to undergo a 30-day evaluation in a psychiatric hospital.
Soft Power was created in 2022 just before Russian forces began their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The justice ministry labeled it a “foreign agent” in 2023.
Among those who are a part of Soft Power are political activist Yulia Galyamina and politician Yekaterina Duntsova, who attempted to stand against President Vladimir Putin in this year’s presidential election.
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