Two months after I was assaulted and beaten up, the police have picked up two perpetrators. I doubt they are guilty.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
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Elena Milashina is a journalist for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. she is a former colleague of Anna Politkovskaya and writes exclusively for Ny Tid.
Every Friday, some of the world's leading freedom of expression advocates write exclusively for the weekly magazine Ny Tid. Our Without Borders columnists:Parvin Ardalan (Iran) Irshad Manji(Canada), Nawal El-Saadawi(Egypt)Elena Milashina(Russia),Tiam Irani (Iran)Martha Roque (Cuba), Ethel Irene Kabwato (Zimbabwe) Tsering Woeser (Tibet) Malahat Nasibova (Azerbaijan) and Nyein San (Burma).
Moscow, Russia. It is now more than two months since me and my friend Ella Asoyan, who works for the American human rights organization Freedom House, were attacked and beaten. A few days ago, the investigator leading our case called and said that the investigation was now coming to an end.
Late in the evening on April 4, we were both on our way home from the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta. At the bus stop I stopped by a kiosk to buy a bottle of water. A drunk man noticed that I had money in my backpack. I myself was sure that it was he who had attacked us.
But Ella had noticed all the details during the attack: From the moment we started walking down the dark street in my neighborhood, and she heard quick footsteps behind us, to the two perpetrators, who were not intimidated by the fact that three passers-by saw them , left the scene. Ella categorically denies that the drunk man we had met at the bus stop was involved in the crime.
I did not see the perpetrators, and did not even understand that they beat Ella while beating me. I did not lose consciousness, but the ability to understand what was going on did not return until the perpetrators disappeared. They grabbed the hood of my coat, hit me in the head, got me to the ground and continued to hit me on the head – but first avoided hitting me in the face, which is strange. Only when I tried to scream did I get a slap in the mouth. It was a powerful blow, I lost a front tooth. When I later arrived at the hospital and the doctor saw the wound, he was completely shocked.
Random or not?
We are both convinced that we were not pursued the four hundred meters from the bus stop to the scene. We think they were waiting for us. Two men: Ella describes one of them as someone with a typical Caucasian appearance.
It was he who attacked Ella. He hit her on the ground, kicked her and took both of her bags. One of them contained the computer she uses at work, the other was a regular women's bag with money and papers. Ella managed to kick the attacker in the stomach, and he ran away. She got to her feet and actually managed to rip off her purse with money! That's a surprising fact, which says a lot.
He did not attack her again, but stood and blocked her as she tried to approach me. She therefore received a good report from him. He was the one who managed to convince the three women who came by, that the perpetrators and victims knew each other from before, and who managed to prevent the passers-by from interfering by indicating that it was a "family drama".
Meanwhile, I was beaten and beaten. Ella thinks it looked like they were looking for me in particular. Ever since it happened, there have been two versions of what was the reason for the attack. The version I most want to believe in is that it was a random robbery. The only way to prove it is if the police find the perpetrators.
If they find them, I can easily believe it was a robbery. If not, the crime is related to my profession and my work. In the last months before the attack, I investigated the federal drug police. I had written about how some officials have created false cases against innocent people, and used these cases as a cover to sell narcotic drugs on Russian soil.
Traditional Russian way
We are talking about large parties, and part of the income is used to keep colleagues away from investigations. These are facts that have been confirmed by witnesses from another Russian special service, the FSB. We published several of these articles in Novaya Gazeta, but received no response from the drug police. Unless I am wrong, some powerful men, who found my investigation unsatisfactory, decided to "end the discussion" on this topic in the traditional Russian way – by punishing a troublesome journalist?
I expect the Russian police, who are investigating the case, to be able to give me the correct answer to this. I told the investigator that I had always had a foresight during my investigation – in the same way I felt the day before I was attacked in Beslan in 2006, while I was investigating the circumstances surrounding the terrorist attack in 2004.
But the police were very skeptical of my preconceptions. From the very beginning, they have stuck to the official version: Robbery in the open street and unmotivated violence.
Yes, ran. It happens. As I have mentioned, I would like to believe that. Two suspects were arrested the day Ella left Moscow. In the first days after the attack, she did very well, took care of me and cooperated actively with the investigators, answered questions in detail and sat in long interrogations.
But after a while she felt a surge of fatigue and fear. There was a delayed psychological reaction to what had happened, but there was something else as well: The case is that they stole Ella's computer, but demonstratively showed zero interest in the bag with all her valuables.
Unwanted evidence
Two days after the attack, Ella was called by a police officer and asked to enter the password of her computer. At first we did not understand why. Ella had explained in detail about the computer's brand, color and size. There was far enough information to be able to identify it. But the police demanded to get the password. Both that day and the following, and the rest of the week, they kept calling.
At first they asked nicely, gradually they became more insistent. At the same time, they claimed that they had not been able to obtain the computer, and added that since they had spent so much time obtaining the password, they had now lost the opportunity to catch the perpetrators "in the act".
They had not asked for other evidence, such as Ella's bag, which may have had traces of the blood of one of the attackers. The bag, and a number of other items, are still with me.
For each call, Ella became savior and savior. She has lived in the United States for the past ten years, and is not used to such arrogant and unprofessional behavior on the part of the police. She left Moscow fearing she would be stopped at the border. There may be no reason to be afraid, but I understand her fear. I also understand her reluctance to return to Russia.
Forced confession
When the police called me and told me that the investigation was soon over, that they had no doubt that they had arrested the right perpetrators, and that the case could now go to court, I could not stand it any longer. For the first time, I raised my voice. I doubt it's true. Especially because I have met the wives of the alleged perpetrators.
They even came to me and said they were sure their husbands were innocent. It's not just their words – as a journalist I'm used to not trusting things people say – but there are some facts. The most important thing is that one of the detainees is in no way similar to the signal Ella gave after the attack. Only Ella can recognize them, and it is her testimony that will be the main support for the official version.
Otherwise, my assumption will be strengthened: That the police have only brought in a few random guys and knocked a confession out of them. In Russia, this is as common as robbery on the open street.
But the police have done everything to scare my girlfriend from returning to Russia. Ella works for Freedom House, an organization that Russian intelligence has branded unfriendly. She is scared, but ready to return to identify those who have been selected as perpetrators.
She can do this at any Russian embassy abroad – we suggested the Baltics, Ukraine and America. But investigators have opposed this. As one investigator told me: Such an insignificant case does not allow the police to travel that far.
I replied that it was against the law to oppose such an arrangement, and promised that I would not remain silent about this. But believe me – I find it uncomfortable to write this about myself.
Our professional duty
So this is the idiotic situation I am in. When you experience violence against yourself as a journalist, you feel in a way incompetent. Oleg Kasjin, the Kommersant journalist who was assaulted and beaten outside his own apartment in 2010 – and whose case has not been investigated since then – told me that he has experienced the same thing:
"First, the ability of the police to close cases is an effective means of preventing unpleasant truths from coming to light one day. Secondly, ridiculously enough, it always feels a little embarrassing to write about oneself and demand that the culprits be caught. "
I know Oleg Kasjin well. And I know 150 other Russian journalists who have experienced being attacked in the last year. It may be inappropriate for journalists to write about other journalists and demand their rights. But it is our professional duty to tell about these attacks.
And is it not something that concerns everyone, when people who beat up and kill journalists are still at large? And when they try to keep this away from the public? ■
Translated from Russian by Kristian Krohg-Sørensen
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 15.06.2012. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)
