Caselist - PEN International

60time. Solomennikova had been working on a journalistic investigationinto the logging of the Novosibirsk Zaeltsevsky Forest.Case closedAlexander ANDRONYUK: Editor-in-chief of the independent weeklynewspaper Arzamasskie Vesti, was detainedJuly 2009, under suspicion ofextorting a gypsum factory into paying a subscription to his newspaper, soas not to publish information that could damage the factory’s reputation.However, Andronyuk’s deputy editor stated that the newspaper had hadgood business relations with the factory for many years. ArzamasskieVesti is said to be known for its exposés on local officials, and that thenewspaper was the first to publish on a scandal involving a leader of theUnited Russia party. In December 2009, a court in the city of Arzamas,sentenced Andronyuk to five years in a correctional labour camp oncharges of extortion. A court in Nizhny Novgorod upheld the guiltyverdict in February 2010, but imposed a suspended five-year sentencewith a three-year probation period. New charges: In March 2010,another criminal case for ‘libel’ was filed against Andronyuk. This casewas initiated by the head of a water supply company, who was allegedlydescribed in an article as having ‘irregularly seized’ the said company.No new information. Case closed.Sergei MIKHAYLOV: Founder of the newspaper Listok (Page) andmember of the regional parliament of the Russian Altai Republic, hasbeen reportedly charged with defamation and inciting ethnic hatred, inMay 2010. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), thecharge of defamation is linked to an article printed in Listok a year earlier,that was critical of the Altai authorities regarding the liquidation of anoutdoor market in Gorno-Altais, Altai’s capital city. The second charge,is related to a placard with an ultranationalist symbol that Mikhaylovallegedly carried in February. With two cases still under investigationMikhaylov was accused the third time in July 2010. No new information.Case closed.Irek MURTAZIN: Internet writer and former press secretary to thepresident of the Republic of Tatarstan, was sentenced to twenty-onemonths in prison by the Kirov district court of Kazan, capital of Tatarstan,on 20 November 2009. Murtazin was convicted on charges of defamationand instigating hatred and hostility. The trial stemmed from Murtazin’sbook Mintimer Shaimiyev: The Last President of Tatarstan, publishedin 2007. It is said that the authorities only paid attention to the bookafter Murtazin posted on his blog the erroneous news that Tatar PresidentShaimiyev had died whilst on holiday in Turkey in September 2008.The news were refuted soon after, but Murtazin was summoned to theprosecutor’s office for questioning; afterwards his home was searchedand his computer and notebooks seized. The author was formally chargedon 10 December 2008; later that month, Murtazin was attacked in hiscar by two unknown individuals. Case closed due to lack of furtherinformation. Presumed free.Anatoly SARDAYEV: editor in chief of the weekly Mordoviya Segodnya(Mordoviya Today) based in the city of Saransk, the capital of the CentralRussian Republic of Mordoviya. He was sentenced on 29 June 2007 forembezzlement and misuse of funds when he was head of the Mordoviyapostal service in 2004, and was given a 5 ½ year sentence, and a fine ofaround US$ 4,000. However colleagues and press freedom monitors wereconcerned that the sentence may be a means of punishing his newspaperfor critical reports on the local authorities. Case closed. Presumed free.Boris STOMAKHIN: contributor to Radikalnaya Politika and theChechen rebel-run website Kav-Kaz Centre. Sentenced to five years inprison on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and supporting terrorism on 20November 2006. Prosecuting authorities state that his articles called for“destroying of the Russian people as a nation”. He has been imprisonedsince his arrest on 22 March 2006 when he fell from a Moscow windowin an attempt to escape police. It is thought he suffered a fractured spineand damage to his knee. He was first held in a prison in Moscow, thentransferred on 25 June 2007 to another in Nizhny Novgorod, some 400km from the capital. The charges relate to an article published in 2003following a complaint that the newspaper was published by “Chechenradicals”. Stomakhin fled Moscow but returned after an unsuccessfulappeal for asylum in Ukraine. PEN Position: PEN understands thatmany of the articles do call for violence and justify terrorist acts suchas the seizure of the theatre in Moscow in late 2003. Stomakhin, in hisdefence, states that his comments were simply opinions and not calls foraction and a number of NGOS have called for his release, referring to hiswritings as while being on the one hand “outrageous”, on the other theydo not directly incite violence. Case closed: presumed free on expiry ofhis sentence.SERBIAHarassed*Csaba PRESSBURGER: editor-in-chief of Serbia’s only Hungarianlanguage daily newspaper Magyar Szo, was dismissed from his jobon 29 June 2011. Pressburger was fired by the National Council ofthe Hungarian Ethnic Minority, an umbrella organisation of ethnicHungarians in Serbia, for allegedly inadequately covering press conferencesby certain political parties. Although the Council is supposed torepresent the interests of the national minority, it has been criticised forinstead merely representing the interests of the political parties fromwhich its members are elected.SPAINImprisoned - InvestigationJavier SALUTREGI: sub-editor for Egin, that was forcibly closed in1998 by a court order, which was subsequently lifted in 1999. Egin wasaccused of printing coded messages for ETA and thus supporting “terrorism”.Salutregi was charged alongside Teresa Toda (below) and 15 adminstaff of the newspaper. Salutregi was Arrested on 22 July 1998 and freedon €150,000 bail on 20 November 1998, reduced to €6000 in December1999. He received a 12- year sentence on 19 December 2007 on chargesof membership of an armed organisation, and was arrested on 30 November2007 to start serving his sentence. The sentence was subsequentlyreduced to seven years and six months. On 3 July 2008 he was releasedon bail from the Picassent prison, reportedly on health grounds. Howeverhe was re-arrested in April 2009 and remains in prison. He is expected tobe released at the end of 2014.Teresa TODA (f): (dob 1950) journalist and sub-editor for Egin thatwas forcibly closed in 1998 by a court order, which was subsequentlylifted in 1999. Egin was accused of printing coded messages for ETA andthus supporting “terrorism”. Charged alongside Teresa Toda was JavierSalutregi (see above) and 15 admin staff of the newspaper. Toda wasarrested on 19 September 1998 and freed on bail of €6000 that day. Shereceived a ten year sentence on 19 December 2007 and was imprisoned onconviction of co-operating with an armed organisation. Her sentence wasreduced to six years in prison in April 2009. Professional background:Teresa Toda is a Board Member of the Basque PEN Centre. Born inBrazil into a diplomatic family she lived in North and South Americaand the UK before going to Spain where she became a correspondent forEgin in 1984. She then moved to the Basque region to work for a tradeunion publication, taking leave of absence from Egin in 1998, and unableto return when it was closed down. She is known for her anti-Franco andleft wing activism for which she was expelled from university. She iscurrently in prison in Cordoba.Attacked*Gorka RAMOS: journalist for the news website Linformation, wasbeaten and arrested while covering the 15-M Movement protests on 4August 2011. The protests have rallied millions of Spanish citizens inseveral cities to protest against the current two-party system, unemploymentand welfare cuts. Ramos was detained for one night and accused ofdisobeying the authorities, although video evidence suggests he was setupon by up to seven anti-riot police officers.TAJIKISTANNon-custodial sentenceMakhmadyusuf ISMOILOV: journalist for the weekly newspaperNuri Zindagi (Ray of Starlight), and based in the capital, Dushanbe, wasarrested on 23 November 2010 in the Soghd region of the country, wherehe had been working to promote circulation of the newspaper. Accordingto Ismoilov’s lawyer, he has been charged with “criminal defamation”and “insult through media,” but the charges do not relate specifically to aparticular article or plaintiff. On 29 November the editor of Nuri Zindagireceived an official letter from the Asht district prosecutor’s office,demanding copies of all published articles written by Ismoilov. He faceda prison sentence of up to two-and-a-half years. Because Nuri Zindagireceived the letter from the prosecutor of the Asht district, his fellowjournalists believe that the charges relate to an article he wrote aboutthe local authorities in Asht. The article criticized local law-enforcementagencies in particular and the lack of justice in the district. Ismoilov washeld in a detention facility in the city of Khujand, in the north of thecountry and was reportedly held in solitary confinement. Trial: It wasreported that on 30 September 2011 that prosecutors asked the courtto sentence Ismoilov to 16 years imprisonment for insulting officials,defamation and inciting ethnic tensions. Verdict: On 14 October 2011Ismoilov was found guilty of causing moral damages through his articleswhich criticized local authorities. He was barred from journalistic workfor three years and ordered to pay a 35,800-somoni (approx. $7,100)fine; however, he was spared these penalties by a regional court on 7December 2011.Attacked*Khurshed ATOVULLO: editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaperFarazh, was reportedly attacked in Dushanbe, the news service Asia Plusannounced on 31 August 2011. The journalist was reportedly on his wayto Eid al-Fitr when he and his relatives were attacked by the unknownassailants. The attackers, who were armed with baseball bats, reportedlydid not make any demands or threats and the motive for the attackremains unknown. Atovullo was hospitalised following the attack. Hehas reportedly been disappointed by the indifference shown to him bythe authorities after he informed the police about the attack. The policeclaimed to be waiting for the results of the journalist’s medical examinationbefore launching an investigation.ReleasedUrinboy USMONOV: journalist for the BBC Central Asian Service;detained in Khujand, northern Tajikistan, on 13 June 2011, accused ofmembership of the banned Islamic movement Hizb ut-Tahrir and ofseeking to recruit new members to the group via the internet. On 20June 2011 he was indicted on charges of making “public calls to forciblychange the constitutional system of Tajikistan” which carried a maximum15 years in jail if convicted. However, this charge was later changed to‘complicity in activities of the banned group Hizb ut-Tahir’, for which hefaced up to 5 years in prison. Usmonov had been reported missing on 13June after he failed to return home after work. He appeared at his familyhome on 14 June, accompanied by members of the Tajik security services,who told his family that Usmonov had been arrested, and conducted asearch of the house. It was reported that Usmonov appeared to have beenbeaten and had difficulty walking during this search. Usmanov’s lawyer,Fayziniso Vohidova, said that an arrest warrant was signed by the courton June 15. Vohidova claimed that she has been denied access to herclient. The BBC has rejected the charges against Usmonov, stating that“Whilst Mr. Usmonov has reported on the judicial trials and activities ofthe Hizbi Tahir party in Tajikistan at the request of the BBC, the BBC hasno reason to believe these allegations”. His family is further concernedabout his treatment as he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.Trial: Usmonov’s trial began on 15 August 2011 in the Northern City ofKhujand. His lawyer claimed that the prosecution had used as evidence thearticle on Hizb ut-Tahir that Usmonov had downloaded onto his personalcomputer, which he had gathered as part of his journalistic work. He wasalso allegedly accused of using the BBC “as a platform for propaganda”.Verdict: Usmonov was found guilty on 14 October 2011 of spreadingIslamic propaganda through his reporting. He reportedly received a threeyear sentence; however, the judge immediately granted him an amnestyand allowed him to walk free. The verdict was upheld by the TajikistanSupreme Court on appeal on 30 November 2011TURKEYKilled: Trial under wayHrant DINK: editor of the Armenian language Agos magazine. Killedoutside his office in Istanbul by an assassin on 19 January 2007. Dinkwas one of the few persons to be convicted under Article 301 of thePenal Code, accused of “insulting Turkishness” for his writings onthe Armenian genocide. In October 2005 he was given a six monthsuspended sentence for a 2004 article entitled “The Armenian Identity”.Dink’s murder sparked debate on revision or repeal of Article 301,which many believe marked Dink out as a target for ultra nationalists.Threats: Following Dink’s murder it has been revealed that he hadinformed and warned the authorities about the plans to kill him but wasnot taken seriously. Following the murder, a number of other writersand journalists were allegedly put on extremist “death lists” and placedunder police protection. Trial: 17-year-old Ogun Samast was arrested onaccusation of manslaughter, affiliation to an armed group and possessionof illegal firearms. In March 2007 it was reported that 30 people hadbeen interrogated in connection with Dink’s murder, 20 of whomwere subsequently brought to trial that opened in July 2007 and is stillongoing. A separate investigation was opened into 8 police accused of“dereliction of duty” following claims that they had been warned severaltimes that Dink was in danger. In July 2008, the Turkish ParliamentaryHuman Rights Commission reported that there was negligence and lack 61