20:31, 9 April 2015

HRC calls on Dagestani Prosecutor to take control over inquiry into attack on Vyacheslav Starodubets

Vyacheslav Starodubets in the hospital. Derbent, April 9, 2015. Photo by Patimat Makhmudova for the "Caucasian Knot"

The Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC) has asked the Prosecutor of Dagestan to take personal control over the investigation into the case on the attack on Vyacheslav Starodubets, the author of the materials about Derbent.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 5, in Derbent, Vyacheslav Starodubets, the author of the page about Derbent "Pearl of the South" well-known in social network Facebook, the former coordinator of the project "My Derbent", the press officer of the Museum-Reserve "Naryn-Kala", was beaten by people in masks. The victim was hospitalized with multiple bruises and hematomas.

Vyacheslav Starodubets has stated that he associates the attack on him "with a number of resonant posts in his blog," where he "wrote about corruption in the Derbent public institutions."

"The HRC considers inadmissible any harassment of journalists associated with their professional activities, and we believe that such crimes are to be carefully investigated," states the letter signed by Mikhail Fedotov, Adviser to the President.

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