September 17 -A member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot who was one those who staged a pitch invasion during the World Cup final, has reportedly flown to into Berlin to receive medical treatment.
Pyotr Verzilov was one of four protesters dressed as police officers who rushed on to the field during the second half between Croatia and France, briefly holding up play. The protest, designed to promote free speech, marked a rare breach in an otherwise high-security tournament.
Last week the group posted on Twitter that Verzilov might have been poisoned in Moscow and that his life was in danger.
Reuters quoted colleagues as saying the anti-Kremlin activist lost his sight, hearing and ability to walk but was doing better since he arrived in Berlin on a medical transport plane paid for by the Berlin-based Cinema for Peace human rights group.
Photographs taken at Berlin’s Schoenefeld airport showed Verzilov on a stretcher, his eyes closed, as he was being transferred to an ambulance. He became ill after attending a court hearing in Moscow and later suffered seizures while in an ambulance en route to a hospital in Moscow.
“He’s better. Everything is okay,” Pussy Riot member Veronika Nikulshina told Reuters. “The doctors here are great.”
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Verzilov’s wife and also a Pussy Riot member, told a German newspaper she believed he was poisoned. “I believe that he was poisoned intentionally, and that it was an attempt to intimidate him or kill him,” she said.
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