And break the lawyer

Novorossiysk lawyer, head of the Novorossiysk Human Rights Committee, defender of the interests of former police major Alexei Dymovsky Vadim Karastelev was brutally beaten. Moreover, this happened immediately after he was released from custody - he was detained on February 19 during an unauthorized rally in support of Dymovsky and sentenced to seven days of administrative arrest for resisting arrest, although there is no evidence that he resisted . Now unknown persons caught him on the street in the suburbs of Novorossiysk and beat him with kicks and sticks. Later, one of the suspects in the attack on Karastelev was detained. According to RIA Novosti, this was a previously convicted resident of the village. He told the police that he attacked Karastelev out of personal hostility. His accomplice managed to escape.

The executive director of the movement “For Human Rights” Lev Ponomarev called the beating of Karastelev a scandalous challenge to the intentions of the federal authorities to carry out reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His statement reads: “We see that in Novorossiysk there is a fierce struggle not only with the dissident policeman Dymovsky, but also with his defenders. It is obvious that the intentions of the federal authorities to cleanse the “Augean stables” of law enforcement agencies in Novorossiysk have been challenged. At the same time, it became known about a criminal case against Anastasia Denisova, the head of the Krasnodar regional public organization “ETNIKA”.

The history of pressure on Denisova, which began back in 2009 with tax claims against the organization, continued with many hours of inspections at the border, calls for interviews, and attempts to create obstacles when leaving. The culmination was a search, seizure of computers and charges of using unlicensed computer programs “using official position.” She faces up to 6 years in prison. Ponomarev is convinced that the country's leadership and President Dmitry Medvedev must make it clear that their intentions are serious, that they consider the situation in Novorossiysk truly emergency. “It is necessary immediately: to provide Vadim Karastelev and his family with reliable security, to send representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB to Novorossiysk to conduct a thorough check of all revelations of Dymovsky, all the circumstances of his criminal case, all reports of human rights activists about cases of lawlessness and arbitrariness. The investigation into the attack on Karastelev should be under the control of the Prosecutor General’s Office.”