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- They won't get off: Poltoranin, who attacked the Izvestia journalist, faces up to 6 years
They won't get off: Poltoranin, who attacked the Izvestia journalist, faces up to 6 years
The employees of the Krasavaya Seria company, who attacked the Izvestia correspondent Alexei Poltoranin, face up to six years in prison, lawyers say. A criminal case has been opened. Immediately after the beating, the journalist was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury and abdominal injury. The company about whose work our correspondent made the story has been working in Podolsk for a long time, selling "beautiful" license plates for cars to customers. Tens and hundreds of millions of rubles are spinning in this market, and it is highly criminalized. But the local authorities seem to turn a blind eye to this. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
How did the attack happen
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case after an attack on a film crew of Izvestia while journalists were performing their professional activities, the press service of the department reported. A report on the incident will be presented to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. The prosecutor's office also put the criminal case under control.
On the afternoon of March 25, correspondents of the Izvestia News Center, on an editorial assignment, collected information about the illegal trade in license plates in Podolsk. Correspondent Alexey Poltoranin investigated the activities of the Krasavaya Seria company.
A journalist came to her office disguised as a buyer to learn more about the gray sales patterns. However, the staff suspected that a media representative was communicating with them, surrounded them, took away the phone, and a man named Pavel began to beat him.
"They threatened. If I'm not telling the truth, they kept hitting me. It was a very strong blow to the stomach," said Alexey Poltoranin, a correspondent for Izvestia.
Alexey Poltoranin
After the beating, the journalist's phone was taken away, he was forcibly put into a car and taken away in an unknown direction.
"They put me in a Toyota Camry, I didn't remember the license plate," the journalist added. — They forced me to duck so that the film crew would not see me being taken away. They brought me to Podolsk station and dropped me off there. Under pressure, they demanded to write a statement that I had no complaints. I wrote it. After that, they took out a pair of scissors and asked: "Are you right-handed or left-handed? We're going to cut off your fingers now."
Alexey Poltoranin was hospitalized. Doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury and an abdominal injury.
At the same time, the office of the "Beautiful Series", despite the incident, continued to work as usual. The flow of customers was not stopped: they earn a lot of money selling "beautiful" rooms here, individual combinations are estimated at several million.
The office stopped working only after several Izvestia film crews arrived. The staff first locked themselves inside and refused to open the door, and when the cameras appeared, they tried to escape. It was only after a while that Pavel Poghosyan, the owner of the company, came out to the journalists.
When asked directly about the attack, he replied: "You've got me confused with someone else."
His company has been selling "beautiful" license plate combinations to customers for a long time. Our journalists had previously crossed paths with Poghosyan under the guise of clients, collecting material for their investigation. Then he promised to get any number — the only question was the price. Apparently, his dubious business is booming and this is happening with the connivance of local authorities.
Other employees of Krasivaya Seria, upon seeing the cameras, behaved rudely: one attacked the cameraman, others were rude and pretended not to know about what had happened here a few hours ago.
And all these incomprehensible people are locked in a fight with someone who has military awards. Alexey Poltoranin is not just a correspondent. Military journalist. He was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, and the Medal for Bravery. He worked where they shoot. Where they pay for reports in blood. And he suffered here, in a residential area of Podolsk. At the hands of those who sell government numbers. He was not threatened, but beaten.
What threatens the attackers
Those who attacked the Izvestia correspondent face real prison terms, said Anton Langert, partner at the MOORE Law Firm.
— Sellers of "treasured" signs have obviously become so accustomed to the gray scheme that they have decided that hitting a journalist performing an editorial task is a normal method of doing business. The very fact of Alexey Poltoranin's attack is not just hooliganism," he stressed.
Alexey Poltoranin
The initiation of a criminal case on the fact of an attack on a journalist performing an editorial task is not just a formality, it is the launch of a mechanism that is almost impossible to stop, says Sofya Lukinova, head of the legal department of VMT Consult.
"This is not about a domestic fight, but about obstructing the legitimate professional activities of a correspondent," the lawyer added.
According to her, an important detail is the personal control of the investigation by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee.
"When Alexander Bastrykin takes control of the case and demands a report, it means that local authorities are deprived of the opportunity to somehow mitigate the qualifications or influence the choice of a preventive measure," she stressed. — For sellers who, judging by the story, are used to feeling at ease in this market, a difficult moment has come.
An article about the obstruction of a journalist's legitimate professional activity in connection with violence is a direct path to real deadlines, experts said. The investigation will now work out as strictly as possible not only the fact of the attack itself, but also the entire chain of illegal sale of license plates, which caused the conflict.
— They will not get off with administrative fines or conciliation procedures, — says Sofya Lukinova. — The situation for the attackers has moved to the stage where any attempts to negotiate or exert pressure will be perceived as aggravating circumstances. From the perspective of the case, they are all in a position where the count is not for days, but for hours before the election of a preventive measure, and this measure will be associated with isolation from society.
Alexey Poltoranin
The actions of the attackers are most fully covered by Part 3 of Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — "Obstruction of the legitimate professional activities of journalists, combined with violence against a journalist or with the threat of such violence," explained Anton Langert.
"They face up to 6 years in prison under it," he said. — If the investigation reveals intent to steal property, for example, memory cards, cameras, in order to prevent the dissemination of information, it is likely to add an article about the robbery.
If the attack was spontaneous, demonstratively hooligan in the presence of outsiders, hooliganism will be imputed.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
