(GDF/IFEX) – The following is a GDF press release: Moscow, November 18, 1999 Press release Journalist with popular newspaper beaten In Belgorod on November 17, 1999, at 10.30 a.m., Andrei Yegonyants (Yants), a correspondent in Belgorod province with the Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, was cruelly beaten by militia officers. While returning from a meeting with […]
(GDF/IFEX) – The following is a GDF press release:
Moscow, November 18, 1999
Press release
Journalist with popular newspaper beaten
In Belgorod on November 17, 1999, at 10.30 a.m., Andrei Yegonyants (Yants),
a correspondent in Belgorod province with the Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya
Pravda, was cruelly beaten by militia officers. While returning from a
meeting with the provincial administration, the journalist decided to stop
at a food market. At the entrance to the market, he was stopped by militia
officers and asked to produce his documents. When he showed his journalist
card, the militia officers noted that his photo was improperly pasted and a
stamp was not clearly visible. The militia officers demanded that the
journalist approach their car.
Andrei Yegonyants was taken to a minibus with dark windows, lacking any
identification marks, and with a licence plate which was covered in mud. As
the journalist later stated, at that moment, he had the feeling that the
militia oficers had been waiting for him. While on the bus, the journalist
was cruelly beaten with a baton and kicked. After that, he was taken to the
fourth militia department of Belgorod and placed in detention.
Further to the intervention of the militia chiefs, the journalist was taken
to the first city hospital. He was diagnosed with dull stomach trauma, as
well as injuries to his thorax and kidneys. A criminal case has been
initiated on the journalist’s behalf.
