Five journalists working for independent media were arrested during the night between Wednesday and Thursday in Russia. Police handcuffed Ekaterina Anikievitch of broadcaster SOTAvision and Konstantin Jarov of RusNews, the NGO Ovd-Info, which specializes in monitoring repression in Russia, reported.
According to a witness, Jarov was beaten and threatened with sexual violence by police officers. The other arrested persons are Antonina Favorskaya, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastassia Moussatova.
“They kicked me, put their foot on my head, twisted my fingers and laughed at me when I tried to get up,” Jarov said, as quoted by the RusNews news agency. And he said he suffered a head injury, abrasions, dislocated fingers and sprains. According to the journalist, the violence was provoked by filming near the home of another journalist, Antonina Favorskaya of SOTAvision, who was arrested on Wednesday evening immediately after being released following 10 days of administrative detention for disobeying the police.
The journalist's apartment was searched, as was that of her parents, her lawyer Mikhail Biriukov said, quoted by SOTAvision. According to the same source, two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastassia Moussatova, who had gone to meet her colleague on the occasion of her release, were also arrested and taken away for questioning by investigators. According to the Mediazona website, which specializes in following judicial events, the case against Favorskaya is linked to the activities of the movement led by opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February. Her organizations are classified as "extremist" by Russian justice. Antonina Favorskaya has followed the trials involving Alexei Navalny for years. It was she who shot the last video showing the opponent still alive, on February 15 during a court hearing. She was arrested on March 17, a few hours after placing flowers on the opponent's grave, according to Mediazona.
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