(CJES/IFEX) – Vasily Melnichenko, a journalist and human rights activist, was beaten in the village of Galkinskoye, in Sverdlovsk region, on 22 October 2006, by a former public servant whose illicit activities the journalist has criticised. Melnichenko said the attack occurred during a meeting addressing the bankruptcy of one of the village’s farms. The assailant […]
(CJES/IFEX) – Vasily Melnichenko, a journalist and human rights activist, was beaten in the village of Galkinskoye, in Sverdlovsk region, on 22 October 2006, by a former public servant whose illicit activities the journalist has criticised.
Melnichenko said the attack occurred during a meeting addressing the bankruptcy of one of the village’s farms. The assailant was Alexander Gaan, a former investigator with the prosecutor’s office of the Kamyshlovsky district in Sverdlovsk region, whom the journalist has more than once criticized for his illegal actions, in the newspaper “Territoriya Narodnoi Vlasti”, published in the district.
“Gaan came to the meeting with his security guards. They were holding me by the hands and Gaan took me by the collar and began choking me. Then he hit me against the wall really hard, causing my face and nose to bleed. After that, the guards carried me to the lobby and left me lying there; Gaan was telling everyone I had fallen down and hurt myself,” the journalist told CJES. The emergency medics who were called to the scene diagnosed the journalist with a concussion and fractured nose.
Melnichenko believes the attack is connected to his journalistic and human rights activities. “The majority of my articles revealed how the state bankrupts farms and how farms that are worth millions are sold for mere kopecks and are then looted under the cover of investigators from the prosecutor’s office, such as Gaan. I wrote about raiding, that is, the seizure of farms, and the damage of property and farmland in the Sverdlovsk region. I have received many threats over the phone and I was warned through friends to stop writing. Several days before the attack, I presented a report in the Public Chamber in Moscow on the issues relating to the demise of villages and the people who are behind it. The report aired on NTV television. And that could have angered those who are behind Alexander Gaan,” said Melnichenko.
Melnichenko has reported the incident to the prosecutor’s office and the local police. However, he says he does not anticipate that the culprits will be punished.
Melnichenko was detained on Gaan’s initiative in September 2005 on suspicion of murder. However, he was later released due to lack of evidence.
Vasily Melnichenko is a winner of the Symbol of Freedom award, the Sakharov award, and the Artyom Borovik award “For Honesty, Bravery, Mastery”.
