“Volny Gorod” Under Investigation Again :: Charter'97 :: News

On October 22 this year acting prosecutor of Krichev district Mikhnevich resumed criminal proceedings against the unregistered Krichev periodical “Volny Gorod”. The journalists learn that only in the end of last week, when they were again summoned to interrogations.

Legal action against Vadim Stefanenko, Sergei Nerovny and Nikolai Matorenko was initiated back in July. Then the afore-mentioned correspondents were suspected of the illegal deprivation of freedom (art.183/1 of the Criminal code) of the staffer of the department for combating economic criminality of the Krichev police, police lieutenant Rybchinsky. The suspects connected that incident with their intensified political activism during the presidential election campaign. As a confirmation of the fact they cited confiscations of “VG” print runs and attempted seizure of the computer appliances (during the last police raid at the paper’s office the law-enforcers used metal crow-bars to open the entry doors) and groundless detentions of the newspaper’s staff. Journalists assume that there was every ground to consider that the local executive sought to halt the printing of “VG” and reduce the public activism of the paper’s editorial crew.