15:10, 1 June 2017

Colleagues of victims killed in plane crash in Sochi sue Arkady Babchenko

The Zyuzinsky Court of Moscow has scheduled for June 13 the consideration of a lawsuit filed by staff members of the "Zvezda" TV Channel against journalist Arkady Babchenko because of his post in the social network about victims of the Tu-154 plane crash over the Black Sea in last December.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Tu-154 airplane of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD), which left for Syria, crashed on December 25, 2016. There were 92 people on board, including journalists of the "Zvezda" TV Channel, all of them were killed.

After the plane crash, a number of social network users wrote critical comments about the victims and condemned the Russia's actions in Syria. Arkady Babchenko, a veteran of two Chechen military campaigns, was among the above social network users. On December 25, 2016, he wrote on Facebook that he did not sympathize with relatives of the victims. Arkady Babchenko accused the deceased journalists that the media for which they worked reported false information about the events in Ukraine.

The staff members of the "Zvezda" TV Channel requested the court to oblige Arkady Babchenko to remove his controversial post, but claimed no material claims, the court reports.

According to the "Life", at present, Arkady Babchenko stays in the Czech Republic. He left Russia in February and explained his departure by fears for his safety.

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