Journalists in Trouble Newsletter
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INCIDENTS AND THREATS
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to extensive investigations by Bellingcat and various Western media into the poisoning of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. During his annual news conference on December 17, Putin made the claim, without any evidence, that the media outlets were merely laundering U.S. intelligence materials. He also said that if Russian security services had wanted to poison Navalny, they would have finished the job. Also read “
Belarusian blogger Ihar Losik, who has been recognized by rights organizations as a political prisoner, has started a hunger strike to protest a new charge against him. Fellow blogger Anton Matolka said that Losik was additionally charged on December 15 with helping prepare mass disorder. Losik was initially charged in June with helping prepare for violations of public order, which has a maximum punishment of three years in prison. If found guilty of the lates
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The Moscow City Court has postponed the high-profile trial of several former police officers suspected in the illegal apprehension of investigative journalist Ivan Golunov last year after the lawyer of one of the defendants said he had lost his legal license.
Aleksei Kovrizhkin, the lawyer of the former chief of the Moscow police s illegal-drugs department, Igor Lyakhovets, told the court at the start of the trial on December 14 that the Moscow Chamber of Attorneys revoked his license to practice for unspecified reasons in October.
The court recessed and said the trial would reconvene on December 17 as it waits for official confirmation of Kovrizhkin s status.