Russian journalist Elena Milachina, of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has been hospitalized after being violently beaten in Chechnya, Russia’s non-governmental organization for the defense of human rights Memorial said on Tuesday.
Elena Milachina was attacked after traveling to the Caucasus to report on the verdict in the trial of Zarema Moussaieva, the wife of a judge of Chechen descent.
“Elena Milachina has broken fingers and occasionally loses consciousness,” the non-governmental organization (NGO) said in the statement released today, adding that “the journalist’s body is covered in bruises.”
The vehicle in which the journalist and lawyer of the newspaper Alexander Nemov were traveling was attacked by “armed men” on the route between the airport and the Chechen capital Grozny.
“They were violently beaten with kicks, including in the face, and threatened with death with a gun pointed at the head,” said Memorial, emphasizing that the journalist received direct death threats.
in #Chechnyaunknowns beat Zarema Musayeva’s lawyer Alexander Nemov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina, who had come to the republic for a trial.
Russian journalists report that Nemov and Milashina have been badly beaten and that all their equipment has been taken from… pic.twitter.com/HoPoxaZIkN
– NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 4, 2023
“We warned you. Get out of here and don’t write anything,” the attackers said at the time of the attack.
The journalist and the lawyer, who “almost does not speak or move”, have been hospitalized, the NGO says.
The Chechen authorities had already shown hostility towards journalist Elena Milachina, who, among other things, documented extrajudicial killings in the Russian Republic of Caucasus.
In February 2022, she was forced to leave Russia after Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov threatened to accuse the journalist of being a “terrorist”.
On Tuesday, the journalist and lawyer traveled to Grozny to attend the reading of the verdict of Zarema Moussaieva, the wife of a former Russian federal judge of Chechen descent, Saidi Iangoulbaiev, an opponent of Kadyrov.
Zarema Moussaieva was arrested in Northern Russia in January 2022 by Chechen security forces and forced to return to the Caucasus.
Moussaieva, 53, is charged with “fraud” and “use of force” against a police officer and faces a prison sentence of five and a half years.
Novaya Gazeta is one of the few independent publications in Russia.
The editor-in-chief, Dmitri Muratov, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
The newspaper’s interest in reporting human rights violations in Chechnya has cost the lives of several journalists, including Anna Politkovskaia.
Source: DN
