WORLD> Europe
Russian minister says people can hit back at police
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-27 05:22

MOSCOW: Russia's interior minister said on Thursday people should be permitted to hit back at police who attack them without cause, Russian media reported.

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The proposal comes days after three drunken Moscow policemen were detained for beating a man to death, the latest in a string of scandals involving the force with growing evidence of malpractice and corruption.

"May a citizen hit back at a policeman who has attacked him?" Interfax news agency quoted Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev as asking. "Yes he may; if he is not a criminal, if he is walking along quietly and breaking no rules."

Nurgaliyev, whose ministry is responsible for the police, said a Russian law that prohibits the use of violence against police in self-defence should be scrapped.

"We are all equal, and a citizen is doubly equal," state-run RIA Novosti reported him as telling students near Moscow.

Leaders from the ruling United Russia party said on Thursday they were not ignoring public concerns over the Interior Ministry and were aiming to improve it, Interfax reported.

The European Union has accused the country's much-feared special police force, which goes by the acronym OMON in Russian, of being too heavy-handed at protests and rights groups say they harass immigrants who come to Russia seeking work.

The Moscow city police chief was sacked in April after a Moscow officer went on a shooting spree on his birthday, killing a female cashier and a man shopping in a supermarket.