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Journalist Golunov’s lawyer complaints to court about inactivity of investigator

The Golunov affair has been of no interest to the Investigative Committee since September, the lawyer said

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. The lawyer of journalist Ivan Golunov has complained to court an Investigative Committee investigator has violated the rights of his client and did nothing in response to a grievance over a criminal offense committed against him by police officers.

"The Golunov affair has been of no interest to the Investigative Committee since September," lawyer Sergei Badamshin told TASS. "The chief of the investigative group has been included in a team probing into the case of those detained at the July 27 demonstration. This is evidence of the IC priorities. There have been many procrastinations in the probe into complaints concerning the Golunov affair, transferred from the Interior Ministry to the IC. No criminal case has been opened against the police concerned," Badamshin said, adding that in his complaint to court he requested declaring illegal the investigator’s inactivity and issuing orders to eliminate the violations.

Golunov’s defense asks for declaring illegal actions by the senior special investigator of the Investigative Committee, Oleg Shachnev, who in violation of the rules failed to notify Golunov and his lawyer the investigation of his case had been transferred from the Interior Ministry to the Investigative Committee. The defense was not briefed on the results of the probe into a grievance over a criminal offense committed by police against Golunov. Also, the lawyer said that no decision has been made to open a criminal case and asked the court to issue orders to the investigator to eliminate the violations.

Golunov was detained on June 6 to be charged with an attempt to sell narcotic drugs. A court in Moscow put him under house arrest. On June 11, all charges were lifted after comprehensive examinations. Golunov was set free.

The chief of the police force of Moscow’s Western Administrative District Andrei Puchkov and chief of the Moscow police force’s drug control department Yuri Devyatkin were fired. The chief of the Western Administrative District’s drug control department Andrei Shchirov was suspended for the period of the probe. Another four police officers of the Western Administrative District’s police force were fired after the probe into the abortive criminal case launched against Golunov.