Russian Investigative Journalist Beaten in Chechnya
Elena Milachina, a Russian investigative journalist working for the Independent Newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and lawyer Alexander Nemov were beaten up in Chechnya, announces the Russian human rights NGO Memorial.
Chechnya expert Elena Milachina was attacked after traveling to the Russian Caucasus republic to cover the verdict in a trial, according to Memorial. “Elena Milachina’s fingers are broken and she loses consciousness from time to time”the NGO said in a statement. “His whole body is covered in bruises”, underlines the press release. The car in which the journalist and her lawyer, Alexander Nemov, were, was attacked by “armed men” on the road from the airport to the Chechen capital, Grozny, according to the NGO. “We beat them violently with kicks, including in the face, threatened to kill them by putting a gun to their head” and repeating: “We have warned you. Get out of here and don’t write anything. reports Memorial. The journalist, whose assailants shaved her head and painted her face with green dye, and her lawyer, “who speaks and hardly moves”are currently ” to the hospital “according to the NGO.
Elena Milachina has aroused the ire of the Chechen authorities in particular by documenting the extrajudicial executions committed in this country. In February 2022, she had to temporarily leave Russia, according to her diary, after threats from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who called her a “terrorist”.
On Tuesday, the journalist and her lawyer went to Grozny for the statement of the verdict against Zarema Mousaïeva, the wife of a former Russian federal judge of Chechen origin Saidi Yangoulbaïev who became an opponent of Ramzan Kadyrov. Arrested in January 2022 in northern Russia by Chechen law enforcement, Mme Musayeva was forcibly taken back to the Caucasus. accused of” scam “ and of “use of force” against a police officer, this 53-year-old woman faces up to five and a half years in prison.
Novaya Gazeta is one of the few strongholds of the free press in Russia and its editor, Dmitry Muratov, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. The newspaper’s commitment, particularly in covering human rights violations in Chechnya , cost the lives of several of its collaborators, murdered, Anna Politkovskaïa being the most famous.