A bailiff at St. Peterburg’s Vasileostrovsky District Court committed suicide on Monday, multiple sources have reported.
RusNews named the bailiff as Sergey Proshnov. According to the St. Petersburg courts press service, the bailiff went into the building’s courtyard out of sight of security cameras before shooting himself.
Proshnov was the bailiff during the trial of Sasha Skochilenko, the artist found guilty of spreading “known untruths” about the Russian army after she replaced grocery store price tags with anti-war statements in spring 2022, independent media outlet Bumaga reported.
During the trial, Proshnov forcibly removed activist Anush Panina from the courtroom. The activist, who had come to support Skochilenko, left the court in an ambulance after Proshnov allegedly injured her hand while forcibly removing her from the building. Panina was later fined for disobeying the bailiff’s orders.
