MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. Three police officers who were dismissed due to Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov’s case are going to seek reinstatement in their positions through court, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"Three police officers who took part in operations regarding Golunov’s case had been previously dismissed from the Interior Ministry’s Main Interior Directorate for Moscow’s Western Administrative District for violating the official regulations. The administration decided that the police officers did not provide a lawyer for the journalist nor let him call his relatives. The former employees themselves say that he received a lawyer but was not allowed to make a call as they feared that he may come in touch with his accomplices. The former police officers are preparing an action to the court demanding their reinstatement," the source said.

Golunov was detained on June 6 on suspicion of attempted drug sale. Moscow’s Nikulinsky Court placed him under house arrest. On June 11, charges were lifted from the journalist following complex expert examinations.

After that Head of the Department of Internal Affairs for the Western Administrative District of the Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Moscow Andrei Puchkov and head of the Directorate for Drug Trafficking Control of the Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Moscow Yuri Devyatkin were dismissed. Head of the Department for Drug Trafficking Control of the Interior Directorate for Moscow’s Western Administrative District Andrei Shchirov was removed from office, and four more employees of the Interior Directorate for the Western Administrative District were dismissed after a check following the criminal case against the journalist.