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02 October 2024 – 18:37
Moscow, Oct 2 (EFE).- A Moscow court began the trial against four Russian journalists, accused of cooperating with the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), an organization created by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, declared extremist and outlawed by the Russian authorities.
Journalists Antonina Favórskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantín Gábov and Artió Kríguer appeared today before the Urban Court of the Nagatino district of Moscow, accused of “participating in an extremist community,” according to the independent portal Mediazona.
The four were arrested between March and June of this year for “participating in the creation of journalistic materials for YouTube channels of Navalni’s followers.”
Although none of the four were officially members of the FBK, and they only limited themselves to writing about their activities, the Prosecutor’s Office considered the link sufficient to initiate a criminal case.
Antonina Favórskaya, a Sotavisión correspondent, was the first to be arrested last March, followed by Karelin and Gábov, contributors to AP and Reuters respectively, in April, and Kriguer, a Sotavisión journalist, in June.
The accusation is led by Nadezhda Tijonova, an officer of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office who carried out the last criminal case opened against Navalni when he was already serving his sentence, before dying under strange circumstances in a prison in the Russian Arctic.
Shortly after the trial began, the judge closed it to the press, alleging possible provocations by the FBK during the hearing.
Last September, a court in the Vladimir region began trying three of Navalni’s lawyers – Vadim Kobzev, Alexei Liptser and Igor Segurnin – for this same cause, and also behind closed doors with the same excuse of provocations by FBK.EFE
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