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Legal Action
April 10
Ali Tekin, Selam, IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Talip Ozdemir, Selam, IMPRISONED, LEGAL ACTION
Tekin, managing editor of the Turkish Islamic weekly Selam, and Ozdemir, an Ankara representative for the weekly, were given the maximum possible sentence of three years in prison for attempting to enter Chechnya illegally from Azerbaijan via Dagestan, in violation of Article 83 of the Russian Penal Code. They had been detained since Nov. 2, 1995, when Russian border guards arrested them at the Chechen border with Dagestan and accused them of not holding the proper visas. After appeals from their lawyer and CPJ, an appeals court on July 5, 1996, overturned the sentence, acquitted the journalists of charges of "border and custom violation" because they were considered to be "journalists on duty," and released them.
June 23
Valery Yerofeyev, Vremya-Iks, HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Yerofeyev, a former editor in chief of the Samara city newspaper Vremya-Iks, went on trial in Samara. He was charged with "pandering," or procuring the services of prostitutes, and with "producing pornography" under Article 226 of the Russian Penal Code. Yerofeyev had been in prison since Sept. 25, 1995, when he was arrested on vacation in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol. On July 29, 1996, a Samara judge released Yerofeyev after sentencing him to 10 months in prison, the same amount of time he had already served in pretrial detention. The case began in the spring of 1995, when Yerofeyev published a series called "People on Sidewalks" in Vremya-Iks. The series claimed that high-ranking police officers were accepting bribes from owners of so-called massage parlors, allegedly fronts for brothels. Yerofeyev was first arrested on June 7, 1995, and detained for three days on suspicion of "procuring a prostitute." He was beaten while in police custody and warned by police officers to discontinue the series of articles. He proceeded with the series, however, and in September 1995, a special Samara police squad was sent to Simferopol to extradite him. His attorney and the Samara chapter of the Journalists' Union filed petitions with the prosecutor's office to have Yerofeyev released on bail, but those petitions were denied. In June 1996, and again in July, CPJ wrote to local and federal officials in Russia, including President Boris Yeltsin, urging them to release Yerofeyev and calling for an investigation of his prosecution and the conduct of police officers involved in the case. The Interior Ministry told CPJ it was looking into the matter.
July 9
Yulia Kalinina, Moskovsky Komsomolets, THREATENED, HARASSED, LEGAL ACTION
Kalinina, a reporter for the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, received a summons to the Judicial Chamber for Information Disputes regarding allegations that she had libeled officials in the Ministry of Construction. The charges stem from a free-lance article Kalinina had written for the Russian weekly Itogi, alleging that state construction officials had accepted bribes to rebuild homes in Chechnya. The Judicial Chamber found her allegations to be unsupported and sent her case to the prosecutor's office, recommending that she be investigated. Kalinina has stood by her story and refused to reveal her sources. Kalinina has received anonymous, threatening letters and phone calls since she began covering the war in Chechnya and corruption in the Russian military. In the letters and phone calls Kalinina has been accused of supporting the Chechen rebels, and has been threatened with rape and other violent assaults. After Kalinina published a free-lance story on military corruption in the Russian weekly Obshchaya Gazeta, on May 13, the calls and letters became more frequent. Kalinina's apartment was broken into and searched on May 24. She went into hiding for two weeks after the break-in.
August 1
Eduard Khusnutdinov, Vecherny Neftekamsk, LEGAL ACTION
Khusnutdinov, editor in chief of Vecherny Neftekamsk, an independent newspaper formerly distributed in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan but now out of print, was notified by a Neftekamsk prosecutor that he is under criminal investigation for libel of Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov, and could face up to five years in prison. Vecherny Neftekamsk was one of the few private newspapers in Bashkortostan, an autonomous region in the Urals where the media have been heavily controlled by local leaders. Khusnutdinov is currently in Moscow. The accusation reportedly stems from an article titled "No Smoke Without Fire," which alleged corruption in Rakhimov's administration. In the front-page key to the newspaper's stories, a summary of Khusnutdinov's story contained the phrase "bribe-taking in the staff of our hapless president." The article itself, however, dropped the words "in the staff." Khusnutdinov claims the mistake was a typographical error. Khusnutdinov's article was distributed just before the July 3 presidential run-off between Yeltsin and Gennady Zyuganov. Rakhimov supported Yeltsin in his bid for re-election.
September 26
Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Novoye Vremya and Stolitsa, LEGAL ACTION
Trial proceedings against Novodvorskaya, a staff writer for Novoye Vremya and Stolitsa as well as a political activist, began in a Moscow municipal court. She was charged under Article 74 of the Russian Criminal Code for allegedly "inciting interethnic discord" and "disparaging the dignity of the Russian nation." The charges against Novodvorskaya stem from an interview she gave to the Estonian television program "Pikanyaevaryukhm" and from two articles she wrote for the Russian newspaper Novy Vzglyad in 1994. The prosecution asked for 18 months' imprisonment, during which time she would also be banned from journalistic activity. A verdict had been expected on Oct. 22, but the judge delayed, requesting that the prosecution investigate further. CPJ on Oct. 11 wrote to President Boris Yeltsin to express concern about the prosecution of Novodvorskaya. On Dec. 23, after lobbying by Parliament members, the Supreme Court lifted the restraining order on Novodvorskaya and she was permitted to travel outside Moscow. The investigation continued at press time.
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