Caselist - PEN International

58Memorial Centre, Oleg Orlov, is on trial on charge of slander against theChechen president. He reportedly suggested that the Chechen presidentwas responsible for the Estemirova’s death. If convicted, Orlov couldface up to three years in prison. (RAN 28/09 – 16 July 2009; Update#1 – 23 July 2009) UPDATE: In September 2010, Russian investigators,following a meeting with a delegation from the Committee to ProtectJournalists (CPJ), pledged to pursue 19 cases or murdered journalists,of whom Estemirova is one. The investigators provided the delegationwith the following update: authorities said they are trying to locate andarrest a Chechen guerrilla fighter who they allege murdered Estemirova.Investigators maintained that the suspect is alive and in Russia. They toldCPJ that they have questioned Kadyrov, but found no evidence of hisinvolvement. Update: An investigation carried out by Novaya Gazeta,the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and the InternationalFederation for Human Rights, published on 15 July 2011, reiterated thatthe official investigation into Estemirova’s death had been mistaken infocusing its suspicion exclusively on the rebel Chechen leader AlkazurBashayev. It reported that that the time of her murder Estemirova wasworking on a more sensitive case investigating the possible involvementof Chechen police officers in the public execution of local residentRizvan Albekov. Estemirova was the first person to report on the killing.The report claimed that investigators inexplicably stopped pursuing thepossible link between this case and the journalist’s murder in early 2010.Human Rights Watch claimed that “there were very strong circumstancesaround Estemirova’s murder that suggest that there could have been someofficial involvement”.Stanislav MARKELOV and Anastasiya BABUROVA (f): lawyerand journalist for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, were shotdead in a Moscow street on 20 January 2009. They were attacked asthey left a press conference at the Independent Press Centre. Markelov,a human rights lawyer who had also worked for Novaya Gazeta andhad represented the journalist Anna Politkovskaya before she herselfwas assassinated in October 2006 (see below). Markelov had, just hoursbefore his killing, issued a statement protesting the early release of aRussian army officer, Yuri Budanov, who had been convicted in 2003for the murder of a Chechen girl. He represented victims of humanrights abuses, including the families of Chechens who have disappeared.Anastasiya Baburova was walking alongside Markelov when he wasshot. She reportedly attempted to apprehend the gunman, but was herselfshot in the head, and later died in hospital. Baburova had joined NovayaGazeta in October 2008 and had been researching neo-Nazism and racemotivatedcrimes in Russia. Investigation into murder: On 5 November2009 a Russian Investigative Committee charged Nikita Tikhonov (29)and Yevgenia Khasis (24), with Markelov and Baburova’s murder.Unconfirmed reports say that both people were members of the RussianNational Union, radical group that has been banned in the country. In lateFebruary 2010, it was reported that Tikhonov has been charged under Part2 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code, for murder motivated bypolitical and ideological enmity. On 29 March 2011 a plea from Khasis’sdefence team that illegal items found in his home during the search hadbeen planted there by the secret services, was rejected. The court alsodeclined to question Vladimir Pronin, former chief of Moscow’s InternalAffairs, who had said in an interview that there were no eyewitnesses tothe crime. The Prosecution has continued to provide evidence to arguethat the defendants are militant Russian nationalists, although this hasbeen disputed by Tikhonov’s father.Sentence: On 28 April 2011 Tikhonov was found guilty of executingMarkelov and Baburova, as well as of the illegal appropriation andpossession of firearms and the forgery of personal identity documents.He has been sentenced on 05 May 2011 to life in a strict-regime penalcolony. Khasis was declared an accomplice in the murder and foundguilty of illegally possessing firearms, and will serve an 18-year term in aregular-regime penal colony. Their lawyers have filed an appeal.Update: Yuri Badanov, was shot dead on 10 June 2011 by an unidentifiedgunman in Moscow. Markelov had represented the family of the Chechenteenager Elza Kungayeva who was murdered in 2000 by Bandanov andhad issued a statement hours before his murder which was highly criticalof his early release from prison.On 14 September 2011 the Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed bythe lawyers for Tikhonov and Khasis contesting the decision made by theMoscow City Court.On 23 September 2011 it was reported that the Russian special serviceshad identified the Chechen warlord Khoz-Akhmed Nukhayev as a suspectin the investigation into the murder.(RAN 07/09 – 2 January 2009)Anna Politkovskaya (f): leading journalist and author, shot dead in theelevator of her apartment on 7 October 2006. Covered the war in Chechnyaand had been receiving threats since 1999 after she wrote articles claimingthat the Russian armed forces had committed human rights abuses inChechnya. Despite these threats she continued to write and in 2003published A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya. She was alsoa co-contributor to A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya,published in 2003. Her most recent book, published in 2006, was Putin’sWar: Life in A Failing Democracy. In 2002 Politkovskaya was one of thefew outsiders allowed into a Moscow theatre in an attempt to negotiatewith Chechen rebels the release of hundreds of hostages held there. In2004, she fell seriously ill as she attempted to fly to Beslan to cover thehostage crisis there, leading to speculation that she had been deliberatelypoisoned to stop her from reporting on the crisis. Politkovskaya was thewinner of numerous international awards for her courage, including the2004 Olaf Palme Award that was set up by the family of the murderedSwedish prime minister. The prize was given to Politkovskaya to honourher work for the “long battle for human rights in Russia”. Investigationinto murder: On 27 August 2007, the prosecutor general announced thatten suspects had been arrested in connection with the murder includingChechen criminals, former and serving members of the Russian FederalSecurity Services and police forces. (International monitors have voicedconcerns about lack of transparency in the proceedings and conflictingstatements that could undermine the investigation.) On 18 June 2008,the Investigative Committee announced that it had charged three men,a former police officer and two ethnic Chechen brothers. Two otherinvestigations were opened, one suspect tried in absentia, and anotherinto the intellectual authors of the crime. Trial: On 17 November 2008the trial of Politkovskaya’s alleged murderers began, at first open to thepublic, but then behind closed doors. On 19 February 2009, the menaccused of assisting Politkovskaya’s murder were acquitted by a twelvememberjury for lack of evidence. After prosecutors appealed the nonguiltyverdict, the Supreme Court overturned this decision and ordered aretrial Update: On 24 August 2011 Russian authorities arrested Lt. Col.Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov in connection with the case and named convictedcriminal Lom Ali Gaitukayev as the organiser of the murder. TheInvestigative Committee alleged that Gaitukayev had been approachedby an unidentified person in July 2006 and asked to carry out the murder.Gaitukayev had formed a gang with this nephews Rustam and DzhabrailMakhmudov (who had previously been acquitted on 19 February 2009,see above) and Ibragim Makhmudov, along with Pavlyuchekov and formerpolice officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov (also acquitted). The agencyclaimed that Pavlyuchenkov – then head of surveillance at Moscow’sMain Internal Affairs Directorate – had ordered his subordinates tofollow the journalist to identify her schedule and commuting routes, andhad then shared this information with the other members of the gang.Pavlyucheko also allegedly passed the murder weapon from Gaitukayevto the suspected gunman, Rustam Makhmudov. It is unclear whether theInvestigation Committee plans to charge Gaitukayev, who is currentlyserving a lengthy jail term on unrelated charges of attempted murder,with the killing. Honorary member: PEN CanadaDisappeared: Motive UnknownYekaterina SILINA: a freelance correspondent for the REX newsagency, she was reported missing in January 2011. She was last seennear the School of Journalism at Moscow State University late on 13January 2011. Silina is very young – 16 years old – and had told herfamily that she might be in danger. According to REX, Silina wroteabout new Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s initiatives, the work of theMoscow municipal government and problems facing the agro-industrialindustry. She was also in charge of scanning government officials’ blogsfor details about their performance. She contributed reports to severalnewspapers, and attended courses to prepare entrance exams for theSchool of Journalism at Moscow State University. The police have starteda criminal investigation. PEN is seeking an update.Attacked*Oleg KASHIN: correspondent for the Russian business dailyKommersant, was brutally attacked by two unidentified assailants outsidehis central Moscow home on 6 November 2010. The attackers carriedbouquets of flowers in which steal rods were hidden. Kashin was reportedlystruck with the rods over 50 times in an attack which lasted around90 seconds. The attack was highly criticised in Russia, and was quicklycondemned by President Dmitry Medvedev, who immediately ordered acriminal case to be opened, directly supervised by Russia’s ProsecutorGeneral Yuri Chaika and investigator Sergei Golkin. Update: Theinvestigation into the attack initially identified a number of suspects,including members of pro-Kremlin youth organisation. However, thelead investigator into the murder was changed to Investigator NikolaiUshchapovsky in early October 2011, and since then Kashin has claimedthat there has been little progress in the case. Kashin has also claimed thatUshchapovsky has refused to respond to his calls concerning the case.*Alexander KOLTSOV: reporter for the local Nara-Novost newspaperin the Naro-Fominsk district. After Koltsov published an article criticalabout the collapse of the pedestrian overpass in Naro-Fominsk. MaximPomitun, an official in charge of overseeing the municipal media, metthe journalist after saying he would “have it out with him”. After a briefverbal exchange, Pomitun attacked Koltsov, leaving him with multiplebruises, a large facial haematoma and a badly cut eye-lid. Koltsov spenttwo weeks in hospital and has partially lost his eyesight as a result of theattack.Threatened*Vadim RECHKALOV: political commentator with the daily newspaperMoskovsky Komsomlets, was threatened at gun-point by an unknown manon 5 July 2011. Rechkalov was driving into Moscow from the suburbswhen a sedan approached his car from behind as he entered a tunnelon Novorizhskoye highway. It was reported that the sedan swerved andthe journalist saw the driver reach for a handgun and aim for him. Thesedan chased Rachkalov for a few minutes and the man tried to cut himoff again as the exited the tunnel. No shots were fired. The incident wasreported to police, however, it is unclear whether they have opened aninvestigation. Rechkalov’s articles have covered a number of highlysensitive topics including the conflict in the North Caucasus, corruptionand political murders.*Polina ZHEREBTSOVA (f): diarist who wrote about her experiencesgrowing up in war-torn Grozny, whose memoirs were published in late2010 by Detekiv-Press. Shortly after the publication she received a phonecall from an unknown caller who reportedly said “So, you will write aboutChechnya? Do you want to live?”. Since then she has received numerouscalls from unidentified individuals who remain silent. Her husband hasalso been targeted, receiving up to twenty such calls a day. Zherebtsovahad fled Chechnya in 2005.Harassed – Family AttackedAbdulla DUDUYEV and Israpil SHAVKHALOV: journalists andeditors of the Moscow-based independently quarterly Dosh. In early April2011 a swastika was drawn on the door of Duduyev’s home in Moscowand four days after which his wife Madina Duduyeva was approached bythree youths who shouted insults at her as she was taking her childrento kindergarten. It was reported that the intimidation was the result ofDuduyev’s work for Dosh, one of the few media outlets to cover humanrights violations by security forces and corruption by officials in theNorthern Caucuses. Duduyev’s wife was subsequently violently attackedon 4 October 2011, again on the way to her children’s kindergarden, andreceived multiple blows to the head and neck. She spent two days inhospital with concussion and is reportedly still suffering from an acutestress reaction. Following the attack, Shavkhalov told Reporters SanaFrontiers that he and Duduyev had had the impression of being constantlywatched in the months leading up to the attack and that Duduyev hadfound microphones in his apartment. Previous attack: Duduyev andShavkhalov were attacked and badly beaten in Moscow in January 2001by unidentified assailants, reportedly due to their criticism of ChechenPresident Akhmad Kadyrov.Harassed- Dismissed*Gennedy DONTSOV, Nikolai BATAVIN, Viktor SILAYEV, IvanSMETANIN and ALEXANDER KOVALYOV: former editors ofthe Southern Urals based newspapers Yukhnouralets, Krasny Uralets,Selskiye Novostoi, Nyazepetrovskiye Vesti and Kolos, respectively, wereall dismissed from their positions as editors in September 2011. Dontsovclaimed that he fell into disfavour after protesting against new mediaregulations which gave the United Russia political party greater power tomonitor media materials before they went to print. Although the reasonfor the other dismissals remains unclear, it has been suggested by somejournalists that it is part of a process of ‘political cleansing’ by UnitedRussia before the upcoming election.Harassed*Yakov SAMOKHIN and Eleonora SOLOMENNIKOVA (f):Novosibirsk-based journalists who founded the publishing houseSibninform. On 1 December 2011 unknown individuals broke intoSamokhin and Solomennikova’s house and killed their dog. The garagedoor, which leads into the house, was left open following the break-in,but nothing was reported stolen. The motive for the attack is unclear,however, Samokhin has claimed the incident may have been an attemptto intimidate or attack Solomennikova, who was due to be home at the 59