Horn
15th June 2012, 12:50 AM
A liberal-leaning newspaper claimed Wednesday that the Investigative Committee's chairman threatened one of its reporters, who has since fled the country for fear of his safety.
Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, in an open letter published on the newspaper's website, accused Alexander Bastrykin (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/alexander_bastrykin/433900.html) of making the threats on a roadside bordering a Moscow region forest after the reporter had been driven there by Bastrykin's security guards.
Muratov later told Radio Liberty that the reporter, deputy editor Sergei Sokolov, had fled the country. Muratov has not disclosed the actual threats.
Sokolov was alone with Bastrykin when the threats were made, the letter said. Bastrykin is one of the nation's most senior law enforcement officials.
Recently, Sokolov wrote that he was outraged by the relatively soft sentencing of Sergei Tsepovyaz, a reputed member of the notorious Kushchyovskaya gang, which murdered 12 people, including small children, in 2011.
Tsepovyaz was fined 150,000 rubles ($4,600) for covering up the crime. The court ruled that he did not participate in the murder. Two other men who share Tsepovyaz's last name were found guilty of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In the article on the crime, Sokolov calls Bastrykin, as well as President Vladimir Putin (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/vladimir_putin/432538.html) and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/yury_chaika/433914.html), "servants of countless Russian 'Tsapoks.'" The Kushchyovskaya gang's reputed mastermind, Sergei Tsapok, is currently in jail awaiting trial.
Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/chief-investigator-accused-of-threatening-reporter/460260.html#ixzz1xqHDVB3M
The Moscow Times
Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, in an open letter published on the newspaper's website, accused Alexander Bastrykin (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/alexander_bastrykin/433900.html) of making the threats on a roadside bordering a Moscow region forest after the reporter had been driven there by Bastrykin's security guards.
Muratov later told Radio Liberty that the reporter, deputy editor Sergei Sokolov, had fled the country. Muratov has not disclosed the actual threats.
Sokolov was alone with Bastrykin when the threats were made, the letter said. Bastrykin is one of the nation's most senior law enforcement officials.
Recently, Sokolov wrote that he was outraged by the relatively soft sentencing of Sergei Tsepovyaz, a reputed member of the notorious Kushchyovskaya gang, which murdered 12 people, including small children, in 2011.
Tsepovyaz was fined 150,000 rubles ($4,600) for covering up the crime. The court ruled that he did not participate in the murder. Two other men who share Tsepovyaz's last name were found guilty of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In the article on the crime, Sokolov calls Bastrykin, as well as President Vladimir Putin (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/vladimir_putin/432538.html) and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/yury_chaika/433914.html), "servants of countless Russian 'Tsapoks.'" The Kushchyovskaya gang's reputed mastermind, Sergei Tsapok, is currently in jail awaiting trial.
Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/chief-investigator-accused-of-threatening-reporter/460260.html#ixzz1xqHDVB3M
The Moscow Times