ST. PETERSBURG, October 17 (RAPSI, Kirill Chulkov) - A court in St. Petersburg dismissed for the third time an application filed by the Investigative Committee seeking to examine eccentric performer Pyotr Pavlensky’s mental health, Pavlensky’s lawyer Dmitry Dinze told RAPSI on Friday.
“The court refused to place Pavlensky in a mental clinic again. The investigator’s motion did not include any new reasons for the examination,” Dinze said.
The week before, a judge of the Dzerzhinsky court, Vladimir Vasyukov, closed the hearing of a motion by the Investigative Committee that requested an inpatient mental examination for Pyotr Pavlensky. Dinze claims the investigator withdrew the motion without any explanation. Earlier, on August 8, a judge of the same court, Alexander Kireyev, rejected a motion by investigator Pavel Yasman. The third motion was heard by judge Olga Andreyeva.
In the early morning of February 23, 2014, Pavelnsky and other activists staged a protest on the Maly Konyushenny Bridge near the Church of the Savior on Blood in St. Petersburg. They burned car tires, waved Ukrainian flags and banged sheet metal with sticks. The police arrested several people, including Pavlensky, and opened an administrative case on minor hooliganism. The court issued a 10,000 ruble ($247) fine for Pavlensky.
Last spring, investigators opened a criminal case on group vandalism regarding the same incident.
Pavlensky has already endured an examination after a protest he staged on Red Square. The examination indicated that he was mentally stable.
Pavlensky is known for a number of controversial campaigns. In July 2012, he sewed up his mouth and stood at the Kazan Cathedral with a poster in support of Pussy Riot. In May 2013, Pavlensky lay down on the ground in front of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly naked with barbed wire around his body. In November 2013, also naked, Pavlensky nailed his genitals to the pavement at Red Square near the Mausoleum. He was taken from the square by ambulance.