RUSSIAN CHESS grandmaster Garry Kasparov could face criminal charges after a police officer claims the chess champion bit him.
“I did not bite anyone. It is all a lie,” Kasparov said yesterday after being questioned at the Russian interior ministry.
Kasparov, a leading opposition activist, was among more than 60 people arrested last Friday outside Moscow’s Khamovnichesky court at a protest to support the Pussy Riot punk band, three of whom were sentenced to two years in jail.
Internet video clips show police officers seizing Kasparov while he was giving interviews to journalists outside the court. There is a scuffle as five or six officers bundle him into a van and one officer can be seen striking him.
The video record showed the allegations against him were preposterous, Kasparov wrote on his blog. “Unfortunately, having all the evidence in the world on my side will not help me in a Moscow courtroom.”