Five journalists working for independent media were arrested on Wednesday March 27 and Thursday evening in Russia, where repression targeting any challenge to power is escalating. During the night, the police arrested Yekaterina Anikievich from an independent news site SOTAvisionand Konstantin Jarov of RusNewsreported the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in monitoring repression in Russia.
Mr Jarov was beaten by police and threatened with sexual violence, according to an eyewitness cited by the organisation. “They hit me with their feet, stepped on my head, twisted my fingers, mocked me when I tried to get up.”Mr. Jarrow was quoted by his media as saying, RusNews. He said he had a head injury, concussions, dislocated fingers and sprains.
According to him, the violence was provoked by the filming done near the house of another journalist, Antonina Favorskaya. SOTAvisionwho was arrested on Wednesday evening soon after being released after ten days of administrative detention for defying the police.
The journalist’s apartment was searched on Wednesday evening, as were his parents’, his lawyer, Mikhail Biryokov, was quoted as saying. SOTAvision.
In relation to the activities of Navalny’s movement
Two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Mousatova, who visited their colleague after being released from detention, were also arrested and taken away for questioning by investigators, according to the same source.
According to Russian media in exile MediazoneSpecializing in handling legal cases, Mme Faverskia is linked to the activities of the movement of dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in prison on February 16. Its institutions are classified “extremists” by Russian justice.
Antonina Favorskaya has been covering the trials against Mr. Navalny for years. She was the one who shot the last video during the court hearing on February 15 in which the opponent was still alive. She was arrested on March 17, hours after placing flowers on a rival’s grave. Mediazone.
