Stavropol activist Lyudmila Bogatenkova denies accusation of fraud

Lyudmila Bogatenkova, the chair of the Stavropol Committee of NGO "Mothers from Kuma River Area" claims that her prosecution is an attempt to discredit her and to paralyze the activities of the Committee.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Lyudmila Bogatenkova is suspected of fraud when obtaining a loan of 100,000 roubles from an individual. Yesterday, on November 27, the Prosecutor's Office of the Stavropol Territory initiated the second episode of the criminal case against the rights defender.

The second episode of fraud, incriminated to the woman by the Prosecutor's Office of the Stavropol Territory was triggered by the publication in the regional newspaper of an article about the death in 2012 of a conscript Alexander Emelianov, Lyudmila Bogatenkova herself told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her version, Emelianov was beaten up by a senior lieutenant; while the hospital hid the information, claiming that the guy got poisoned with cold canned meat and vodka.

"As soon as I published this article, the hospital wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office; and immediately some citizen Kharebina appeared out of nowhere and stated that she had allegedly come to my office and put 100,000 roubles onto my desk," said Bogatenkova and stressed: "Now this lady has resurfaced. All this information is false and intended to discredit and neutralize me."

According to the rights defender, this is not the first case of dissemination of false information about her. She also spoke about the pressure exerted by authorities on her clients in order to force them to slander the work of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers and her personally.

"All this is done in order to destroy the committee", she has concluded.

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