2023-07-04 10:09:00
Memorial Human Rights Centre
Responding to the brutal beating in Chechnya this morning of Elena Milashina, a journalist for the independent Russian daily Novaya Gazeta, and Aleksandr Nemov, a human rights lawyer, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
“The brutal beating of Elena Milashina and Aleksandr Nemov in Chechnya by masked attackers this morning was an abhorrent act of violence that must not go unpunished. Amnesty International strongly condemns this cowardly attack and calls on the Russian authorities to immediately bring the perpetrators to justice and guarantee the safety of those seeking truth and justice.”
“Given the history of violent attacks against human rights defenders in Chechnya, the direct threats made against Milashina by Chechen leaders, and the fact that the masked assailants told Milashina and Nemov that they ‘had been warned’, this brutal crime It is an example of the extreme dangers faced by those who fight injustice and defend human rights in a context of open hostility from the authorities and total impunity for the perpetrators.”
On July 4, Aleksandr Nemov and Elena Milashina traveled to Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, to attend the sentencing of Zarema Musaeva, who had been arrested, detained, and tried by Russian authorities on trumped-up charges for the activities of his sons, one of whom is a human rights defender.
According to the Memorial human rights center, three black cars blocked the taxi carrying Aleksandr Nemov and Elena Milashina from the airport. Masked assailants dragged both out of the taxi and beat them with batons. They were kicked and punched, hit on the head and threatened to kill them if they did not stop doing their human rights work. They also destroyed his work equipment and crucial documents.
The attackers broke Milashina’s fingers on both hands while forcing her to unlock her phone and stabbed Nemov in the leg.
Musaeva was sentenced to five and a half years in a penal colony that same day, in an unfair trial without the presence of her lawyer, Nemov.
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