A St. Petersburg police officer who achieved notoriety after a video of him beating and insulting peaceful protesters surfaced on the Internet has been hospitalized after being beaten by an unidentified attacker, news reports said Tuesday.
The officer, Vadim Boiko, was struck on the head with an unspecified blunt object, receiving a concussion and craniocerebral injury, Fontanka.ru reported, adding that the incident took place last Wednesday.
The report said the attacker told Boiko, “That's for you, Pearl Ensign,” using a nickname coined by bloggers who launched a campaign to identify Boiko and bring him to justice. Boiko was wearing a bracelet with pearls in the video.
Boiko, who was hospitalized after the attack, has said he received threatening phone calls before Wednesday.
No suspects have been detained.
A video filmed at a banned opposition rally in St. Petersburg on July 31 showed Boiko calling the protesters “ferrets,” beating one of them with a rubber baton and dragging another by the hair.
Boiko was only identified this month, but a city police investigation cleared him of wrongdoing. The Investigative Committee, however, has opened its own inquiry and says Boiko may face up to 10 years in prison on charges of abuse of authority.
