A Novosibirsk urban preservationist who was sent to a psychiatric hospital after a picket in Moscow has spoken out about her torture.

Chairman of the Novosibirsk Society for the Protection of Monuments Natalia Shamina tied She was forced to a bed and forcibly injected with drugs, her colleagues said. The reason was that she allegedly "behaved violently during her arrest" and attempted suicide "by hunger strike."

Shamina arrived in Moscow last week. She protested against a bill that allows regions to strip cultural heritage sites of their protected status. The leaders of the Moscow Region and Ryazan branches of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIK) joined her in picketing in the center of the capital. Heritage activists believe the law, passed in July, poses "colossal risks of cultural heritage loss" and opens the door to the "mass exclusion of cultural heritage sites of regional and municipal significance from the unified state register."

Shamin sent Shamina was taken to a psychiatric hospital after going on a hunger strike. A doctor concluded that she should be hospitalized. However, as reported by the "Slovo Zashchite" project, the prosecutor's office did not support the doctor's position during a court hearing at the hospital. Ultimately, the court released Shamina.