Chief editor of The Insider Dobrokhotov remains a witness in the libel case

The police have completed the interrogation of The Insider editor-in-chief (according to the decision of the Ministry of Justice, included in the register of media outlets acting as a foreign agent) Roman Dobrokhotov, RIA Novosti reported. He remained as a witness.

On Wednesday morning, the police came to Dobrokhotov's house with a search, seized media and his passport. Lawyers did not rule out that after interrogation in the department of internal affairs of the Akademichesky district, he would become a suspect. The status of a witness in a criminal case means that they did not take a written undertaking not to leave the place.

The case on which the journalist was interrogated was initiated by the Metropolitan Police on April 26 under Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code “Slander”. On Wednesday afternoon, its details appeared: according to investigators, the Dutch journalist Max van der Werff became a victim of slander. The Insider wrote that the Ministry of Defense allegedly promoted disinformation about the Boeing MH17 downed in Donbass through him, and paid for his services to the GRU.

• On July 23, the Ministry of Justice entered the domain name administrator of The Insider online publication The Insider SIA (registered in Latvia) into the register of media-foreign agents. Dobrokhotov said that the publication "will work as it used to," despite being recognized by a foreign agent.
• The Insider is a Russian partner of Bellingcat. The publication, together with the investigative group, conducted and published investigations about the poisoners of the Skripals , Alexei Navalny and Russian opposition figures.
• Recently, The Insider is already the fourth well-known independent publication that has come under attack from the Russian authorities. Last week, the Proekt publication was recognized as an "undesirable" organization, and some of its journalists, including editor-in-chief Roman Badanin, were included in the list of foreign media agents. In total, there are now 16 publications and 18 people in the register.