16:20, 31 March 2008

Tuapse prosecutors refuse the beaten journalist to open a criminal case against militiamen

The Prosecutor's Office of the city of Tuapse (Krasnodar Territory) has rejected journalist Sergey Rozhkov's application to initiate a criminal case against the militiamen suspected of beating him. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it by Roman Rudakov, advocate of the public organization "Mothers in Defence of Rights of Detainees, Trialled Persons and Convicts". The Tuapse Prosecutor's Office refused to make any comments.

Roman Rudakov said that the decision not to initiate a criminal case was made by Andrei Ryzhakov, an inspector at the Prosecutor's Office of Tuapse. Mr Ryzhakov said, when talking to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, that a motivated answer had been sent to journalist Sergey Rozhkov. He also reminded that the criminal case is still investigated against the journalist that had been initiated under part 1, Article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Violence against a power representative without danger to his or her life or health").

Author: Evgeniy Titov, CK correspondent