By Current Time

MOSCOW -- Police in Moscow detained at least 20 demonstrators on June 2 as they rallied in front of the Moscow City Police headquarters to protest against police violence.

Current Time correspondents reported from the site that Yegor Ilyushkin, press secretary of the Civil Society movement, along with activists Mila Zemtsova, Lusine Minasyan, Maria Chernykh, Ksenia Babich, and many other noted civil rights defenders were among those detained

The series of single-person pickets, protest acts that do not require preliminary permission from the authorities, was held after local media reported the killing by National Guard officers of a man in St. Petersburg suspected of stealing several rolls of wallpaper. The National Guard explained the fatal shooting by "noticing an item looking like an assault rifle aimed at the officers" in the man's hands.

Last week, police detained dozens of picketers in front of the Moscow City Police headquarters as they expressed support for journalist Ilya Azar.

Azar was sentenced to 15 days in jail for publicly protesting against the jailing of Vladimir Vorontsov, an activist who has worked to expose violations within Russia's law enforcement agencies.

Moscow police said on May 29 that even single-person pickets have been banned in Moscow as a precaution against the coronavirus pandemic.