Stavropol law enforcers discredit rights defender Bogatenkova, her advocate asserts

Law enforcement bodies are putting pressure on clients of Lyudmila Bogatenkova, the Chair of the Stavropol Committee of Soldiers' Mothers "Prikumye Mothers", persuading to slander the rights defender, said Andrei Sabinin, one of her advocates.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Lyudmila Bogatenkova, 73, was detained on October 17 in Budyonnovsk after a search in the office of her organization. She was charged with a fraud. In recent months, Lyudmila Bogatenkova was investigating the circumstances of Russian soldiers' deaths in warfare in Ukraine in July-August 2014.

Currently, law enforcement bodies are looking for the people who used Bogatenkova's legal services, Andrei Sabinin, a lawyer from the Bar Association "Agora", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on November 12.

"Advocates already know several facts, when operative agents visited former clients of Lyudmila Bogatenkova and offered to write discrediting statements against her," said Sabinin.

Bogatenkova believes that the data about her clients was retrieved by policemen during the search of the office of "Prikumye Mothers". According to the advocate, the search as such was held in violation of the procedure of documenting the confiscated materials. However, the complaints filed by her defence to the Budyonnovsk City Court remained unsatisfied.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.