MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The local Moscow prosecutor’s office has offered up its formal apologies to Ivan Golunov, an investigative journalist with the Meduza online newspaper, for unjustified criminal prosecution, the press service of the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office informed TASS.

"The Prosecutor’s Office of Moscow’s Western Administrative District has sent a formal apology to journalist Ivan Golunov in connection with his unjustified criminal prosecution," the Prosecutor-General’s Office said.

Golunov, an investigative correspondent working for the Riga-based Meduza online newspaper, was detained in downtown Moscow on June 6, 2019. According to police, the reporter was carrying four grams of mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant drug, and five grams of cocaine had apparently been discovered during a search of his rented apartment. Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court placed the reporter under house arrest. Golunov’s defense attorney said that the drugs could have been planted on his client. All charges were eventually dropped, and Golunov was set free on June 11.

According to Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, a decision was made to drop the criminal case against Golunov over a lack of evidence proving his involvement in the alleged crime.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office earlier refused to apologize to Golunov, stating that "apologies to a rehabilitated individual for the harm done to him/her are offered by the prosecutor who is supervising the criminal case."