MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/: Moscow’s Basmanny District Court has rejected Meduza news website reporter Ivan Golunov’s appeal against the inaction of the Russian Investigative Committee’s official looking into allegations of police officers’ offense against the journalist, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"The Court hereby rejects the appeal," a judge said.
The prosecution pointed out that a probe was underway into Golunov’s claim that law enforcement officers could have planted drugs on him but it was too early to draw conclusions.
According to Golunov’s lawyer Sergei Badamshin, the investigator seeks to delay the process as he has so far failed to open a criminal case, recognize Golunov as a victim and give him a chance to have a look at the case files.
Golunov case
Golunov was detained in downtown Mocsow on June 6. According to police, the reporter was carrying four grams of mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant drug, while five grams of cocaine were found during a search of his rented apartment. Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court placed the journalist under house arrest. Golunov’s lawyer said that the drugs could have been planted on his client. All charges were eventually dropped on June 11 and Golunov was set free.
Golunov’s lawyer filed an appeal requesting the court declare actions by a senior investigator from the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Directorate for High-Profile Cases as illegal because the official had failed to inform Golunov and his defense team that the case about an offensive against the reporter had been transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Investigative Committee. In addition, the reporter’s lawyer did not have an opportunity to look at the results of a probe into police officers’ alleged offense against Golunov.
