An award-winning Russian journalist, who has spent years investigating purported human rights abuses in Chechnya, has been critically injured in an assault by armed masked males.
Yelena Milashina had simply arrived within the Russian province the place she was on account of attend the court docket sentencing of Zarema Musayeva, a lady who was allegedly unjustly persecuted for political causes.
Ms Milashina was travelling to Chechnya‘s capital Grozny with a lawyer Alexander Nemov after they had been each attacked simply outdoors the native airport.
Their car was blocked by a number of vehicles they usually had been crushed by a number of masked assailants, who put weapons to their heads and broke their gear.
Ms Milashina suffered a mind harm and several other damaged fingers, whereas Mr Nemov had a deep reduce on his leg, based on the journalist’s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.
Each had been taken to a hospital in Grozny, the place she repeatedly misplaced consciousness.
Ms Milashina, who obtained an Worldwide Girls of Braveness Award from the US state division in 2013, mentioned the assault regarded like a « basic abduction », as she spoke in a video from her hospital mattress.
She has additionally been pictured speaking on the cellphone with inexperienced antiseptic protecting her face and several other bruises on her shaven head.
Ms Milashina mentioned: « They threw the driving force out of the automotive, acquired in, bent our heads down, tied my fingers, pressured me right down to my knees and put a gun to my head. »
The Kremlin known as it « a really severe assault » and mentioned it needed to be investigated, including Vladimir Putin had been knowledgeable.
Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov, a detailed ally of the Russian president, wrote on Telegram: « We’ll kind it out. I’ve instructed the competent providers to make each effort to establish the attackers. »
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‘Monstrous assault’
In the meantime, the Russian ministry for digital improvement and mass communications known as it a « monstrous assault » and mentioned it will help each of them.
Just a few hours after the assault, a Chechen court docket sentenced Zarema Musayeva to five-and-a-half years behind bars on costs of insulting and violently resisting police, an accusation that human rights teams have rejected and deemed false.
Ms Musayeva is the mom of two native activists who’ve challenged Chechen authorities.
Ms Milashina has investigated alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya, together with what she mentioned was the mass arrest and torture of homosexual males within the area.
She had obtained threats to her life earlier than.
Her employer evacuated her from Russia final yr after Kadyrov described her as a terrorist in a social media put up and she or he was assaulted in Chechnya in 2020.
Kadyrov denies rights abuses, saying such claims are made up by critics attempting to discredit Chechnya and its authorities.
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