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George Clooney denies claims his foundation plans to prosecute Russian reporters

Russian lawmakers will consider designating the Clooney Foundation for Justice as undesirable in Russia in the wake of its call to prosecute Russian journalists

NEW YORK, June 3. /TASS/. US actor George Clooney refuted a statement by an employee of his foundation alleging that the organization is seeking to prosecute Russian reporters abroad at EU courts and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"In regard to recent reports about Russian journalists, someone in our foundation misspoke. I'm the son of a journalist. We at the Clooney Foundation would never go after journalists, even if we disagree with them," the actor said in a statement posted on his Foundation’s page on X.

On May 31, Anna Neistat, an employee with the Clooney Foundation for Justice, founded by Clooney and his wife Amal, said in an interview with the Voice of America radio station (recognized in Russia as a non-agent media) that the organization intends to petition the ICC to initiate criminal proceedings against Russian journalists who cover the events in Ukraine in a pro-Russian manner. The foundation would allegedly seek arrest warrants for Russian reporters without their knowing in individual EU member countries so that they could be arrested when arriving at their foreign destinations.

Russian lawmakers will consider designating the Clooney Foundation for Justice as undesirable in Russia in the wake of its call to prosecute Russian journalists, Vasily Piskarev, head of the State Duma Commission on Investigation into Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs, announced on Saturday.

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