Photojournalist Alec Luhn, a UW-Madison graduate, was detained while covering anti-government protests in Russia

A photojournalist from Wisconsin, detained during large protests in Russia over the weekend, said the police treatment of protesters was shocking.

A photographer for The Guardian, Alec Luhn, who is from Stoughton, was detained for hours while covering anti-government protests led by Alexei Navalny that drew thousands to the streets of Moscow and other rallies across the country. Navalny was arrested and charged with resisting police orders and organizing a public gathering without a permit. On Monday, Navalny was sentenced to 15 days in jail and fined $350.

"The treatment of peaceful protesters was shocking," Luhn wrote Monday in a post on The Guardian's website.

Luhn is a 2010 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Luhn said it was unusual for foreign journalists to be detained in Russia.

"So I was surprised when riot police not only ignored me telling them I was a foreign journalist and showing them my Russian foreign ministry accreditation but also took me into custody and charged me with holding an unsanctioned rally, an administrative violation," he said, adding that he felt "lucky to be out."

"The foreign ministry has told me the charges against me will be lifted, but many of the 16 others I was in a police van with are not so lucky. They will have to go to court and face a fine or community service. I was speaking with some of them today; they don't expect a fair hearing despite their assertions that police abused their power."

In the post on The Guardian's site, he described the rough treatment of the hundreds of people detained during the protests.

"I’ve witnessed many unfounded arrests and farcical trials in more than six years reporting in Russia. But I was still shocked at how roughly police detained several peaceful demonstrators and a foreign journalist in this instance, even though there was no threat of rioting or violence. The charges filed against many of us were dubious at best."

Those who knew him at UW-Madison praised Luhn's work.

"Alec Luhn, a courageous, hard-working journalist accredited by the Guardian, was simply doing his job when Russian police arrested him for taking pictures of police detaining a protester," said Andy Hall, executive director of the nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Shortly after graduation from UW-Madison, Luhn produced a two-month investigation for the center in 2010 examining economic, housing and transportation safety problems encountered by foreign student workers in Wisconsin Dells under a federal work-travel program overseen by the U.S. Department of State, Hall said.

"Alec exemplifies the best of journalism, as he persistently and professionally holds the powerful accountable for their actions," Hall said. "It took the Russians five hours, but I am glad that they finally saw the light."

UW-Madison journalism professor Kathleen Bartzen Culver said she knows Luhn well and traded emails with him following his release.

Luhn graduated with a major in journalism and mass communication, history and Russian, Culver said.

"We’ve stayed in touch since his graduation, and I watch his career with pride," she said.

Luhn tweeted pictures and a video of his arrest. He also tweeted images from a Moscow courtroom, and photos of other people who were detained and injured by police.

In the email, he said the protest Sunday was the largest "unsanctioned protest" he had seen since 2011, and more are possible as national elections come around next year.

"Vladimir Putin is expected to run for his fourth term next year, while opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who called Sunday's protest, has said he intends to challenge him, and that fundamental conflict hasn't gone anywhere despite the mass arrests on Sunday," he said. More than 1,000 people were arrested, according to several press reports.

Luhn said the crowd Sunday "was very youthful, suggesting new blood is coming into the protest movement."

"Many of those in the police van with me had been beaten or roughed up by police; one was afraid he would be kicked out of university for being arrested," he said.