The Investigative Committee refused to open a case for the third time after the self-immolation of Nizhny Novgorod journalist Slavina

The investigation refused to open a criminal case for the third time after the self-immolation of Nizhny Novgorod journalist and editor-in-chief of KozaPress Irina Slavina, TASS reports citing lawyer Alexander Karavaev.

"Yes it is. If the investigators do not cancel it [the decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case] for the fourth time, we will appeal it,” the agency’s interlocutor said, answering a question about the refusal to initiate a case.

The first time , refusing to initiate a case of incitement to suicide, the Investigative Committee referred to the possible “mixed personality disorder” of the journalist; the second time , the department decided that suicide was the result of “internal processing, a conscious desire to die.”

In November 2020, Slavina set herself on fire near the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Before this, she left a post on Facebook: “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death.” The day before her suicide, the journalist’s home was searched in connection with a case involving an “undesirable organization” in which she was a witness.