FSB interrogates another rights activist in the investigation of "Pravo-Zashchita"PRESS-RELEASE #1133 FROM FEBRUARY 24, 2005
February 3, 2005. Today in the so-called case against the newspaper "Pravo-Zashchita" the appointed investigator from FSB of the Nizhny Novgorod province, Roman Putanov, called yet another member of the Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights (NSHR), Olga Shelepeva, for questioning. While Olga Shelepeva was an official member of the organization until November last year, she did not participate in the organization's activities. She has lived in Moscow for over a year, working at the human rights center "Demos". Nevertheless, in accordance with the editorial contract she is still officially a member of the editorial staff, and her name appears in present issues of the paper. Because of these circumstances she was called to questioning.
As has been reported earlier, on January 11, 2005, the Nizhny Novgorod Province prosecutor opened a criminal case regarding part 2, article 280 in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public incitement to further extremist acts) based on the publication of two appeals made by Aslan Maskhadov and Akhmed Zakayev for peaceful negotiations in the Chechen conflict. The investigation is carried out by the Nizhny Novgorod province FSB department. ТPravo-ZashchitaУ is jointly published by IC SRCF and Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights. On January 20, Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, editor in chief of the paper, was called for questioning in the case, and documents were seized in the shared offices of IC SRCF and NSHR, specifically the employee contracts of associates working in Chechnya. In the past few days the FSB has called into questioning the editor of the Russian language version of information releases Tatyana Banina, technological manager Aleksander Lavrentov, accountant Natalya Chernilevskaya, and former accountant Aleksei Grafov (see our press releases #1103 from January 21, 2005; #1105 from January 21, 2005; #1109 from January 24, 2005; #1117 from January 27, 2005; and #1119 from January 28, 2005).
The editor in chief of the paper and of IC SRCF, Stanislav Dmitrievsky, calls the prosecutor's allegations unsubstantiated, absurd and politically motivated. He considers the acts by the Nizhny Novgorod province prosecutor and the local FSB to be another attack by the authorities on independent media, and yet another part in the information blockade around the Chechen Republic.
Source: ORChD (B/T) |
