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Yelena Milashina in hospital: "The attackers didn't even say what they wanted"

Photo: SERGEI BABINETS / THE CREW AGAINST TORTURE/HANDOUT HANDOUT / EPA

Opposition Russian investigative reporter Yelena Milashina was beaten up and seriously injured in Chechnya on Tuesday morning. She had traveled to the Russian Caucasus republic with lawyer Alexander Nemov, who was also seriously injured in the incident. Milashina and Nemov wanted to attend a verdict in Chechnya, which Milashina had already reported on several occasions.

On the way from the airport to the Chechen capital Grozny, masked and armed men stopped her car. "They were already waiting for us at the airport," Milashina said in an interview on the Telegram channel of the NGO Team Against Torture. It is possible that two of the later attackers had even sat next to them on the plane. "It's possible to find out who they are: their data is stored in the system, there are many cameras at the airport."

Her taxi in the direction of Grozny was followed by several cars. "There was one thing I could see well: a black Toyota Camry," says Milaschina. "There were at least four people in each car." They forced the taxi to stop and threw the driver out, then drove a little further. "They dragged us into a ravine and started beating us. There were at least ten or twelve of them."

"It feels like a burn"

The attackers searched the luggage, Milashina says, and demanded the password to Milashina's cell phone. "When they did, they had already shaved my head and put green paint in my eyes, I couldn't see anything and I couldn't enter the password." The men apparently threatened several times to cut off the fingers of their victims. "They were in a hurry, and they knew what they wanted."

The men would then have struck with polypropylene pipes. "These are used in Chechnya to beat up prisoners. I have already written several times about the use of these pipes for this purpose." Now she has experienced for herself the effect of this weapon. "It really hurts, it feels like a burn."

The money that Milashina and Nemov had with them was not touched by the attackers, says Milashina. It is therefore possible that this is a deliberate intimidation of the two representatives of civil society. "But these attackers didn't even say what they wanted." However, they destroyed all existing documents and technology.

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Nemov (sitting) and Milashina (lying) in the hospital in Grozny

Photo: SERGEI BABINETS / THE CREW AGAINST TORTURE/HANDOUT HANDOUT / EPA

Milashina reported in detail on the trial of Zarema Musaeva

The video shows Milashina shaved bald and still with green paint on her head. Her hands are no longer bandaged, she can move her fingers a little – at first it was said that the fingers were broken. However, swelling and hematomas on her hands and arms are clearly visible. The human rights organization Memorial reported that Milashina suffered bruises all over her body and lost consciousness several times. Reporters Without Borders said it was "appalled by the brutal attack".

Milashina wanted to report in Grozny for the government-critical newspaper »Novaya Gazeta« on a trial against Zarema Musaeva, whose case she had already taken up in detail several times. The beaten-up lawyer Nemov is the official defense attorney for the defendants. The 53-year-old wife of a former judge was abducted from the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod to Grozny last year. According to Russian state media, the court in Grozny sentenced Musaeva on Tuesday to five and a half years in prison. She was accused of alleged fraud and assault on a police officer.

Milashina had already been threatened with death by Chechnya's ruler Ramzan Kadyrov in 2020 after she had critically reported on the brutal treatment of the population in the corona pandemic. The journalist has been researching in Chechnya for years.

Russia's human rights commissioner wants to examine the case

Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed about the attack on Milashina and Nemov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian agencies. Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova is looking into the incident, he said. She has already turned to the investigative authorities of Chechnya. "Of course, there is a need for an examination and investigation in connection with the attack," Peskov said. It was a "very serious attack that requires very vigorous measures".

According to Russian agencies, Moskalkova said that the incident must be thoroughly investigated and that the culprits must be punished. Milashina and Nemov were taken to a hospital outside Chechnya on Tuesday, according to Russian sources.

Ramzan Kadyrov leads the Islamic-dominated Chechnya in the North Caucasus with a heavy hand. Civil rights activists repeatedly complain about brutal human rights violations, including torture and persecution. In the nineties, Chechnya, which was then striving for independence, waged two wars against Russia. Moscow managed to regain control of the region with massive attacks.

alx/mgo/dpa