Notorious Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky said he was assaulted by detainee escort officers in the Moscow City Court.
“As I am writing these lines, I have a broken knee, a crack in my rib and internal bruising,” Pavlensky wrote, calling the incident “the consequences of a usual transit [while escorting prisoners],” he said in a letter published by his wife Oksana Shalygina on Facebook Tuesday.
The hearing of Pavlensky's case is taking place at the Moscow Preobrazhensky Court but he was taken there through the Moscow City Court.
Pavlensky's lawyer Dmitry Dinze confirmed to the Mediazona news website that his client had been beaten by police but noted that his client “will not deal with these cops” as he doesn't want to “participate in the bureaucratic procedures.”
Pavlensky is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center over his latest action “Threat. The Burning Doors of Lubyanka” during which he set alight the wooden doors of the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
On Tuesday, the Moscow Preobrazhensky Court continued hearing another case against Pavlensky, accused of burning tires on a St. Petersburg bridge in 2014.