The Moscow City Court recovered one and a half million rubles from the ex-police officers who detained journalist Ivan Golunov

The Moscow City Court upheld the claim of journalist Ivan Golunov to recover one and a half million rubles as compensation for moral damages from the former police officers who detained him in June 2019. TASS reports this with reference to lawyer Sergei Badamshin.

Ivan Golunov was detained in June 2019, when he was working as a correspondent for Meduza’s investigative department. Then a criminal case was opened against him for attempting to sell drugs on a large scale (clause “d”, part 4, article 228.1 of the Criminal Code, using part 3, article 30 of the Criminal Code). Within a few days, the charges against the journalist were completely dropped due to the lack of proof of his participation in the crime.

In May 2021, five police officers who participated in the arrest of Golunov were found guilty under articles of abuse of power (clauses “a”, “b”, “c”, part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code), falsification of evidence and the results of an operational search activities (Part 3 of Article 303 of the Criminal Code) and illegal possession of drugs on a large scale (Part 2 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code). According to the prosecution, they planted drugs in Golunov’s backpack and apartment in order to then illegally prosecute him.

All five were given actual prison sentences ranging from five to twelve years. In March, the appellate court softened this decision: four convicts had their sentences reduced by six months.

• The action on June 12, 2019 “I/We Ivan Golunov” against fabricated cases in Moscow was accompanied by harsh and mass arrests . In Moscow that day, according to OVD-Info, 530 people were detained, at least five of them spent the night in police departments.