MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee announced that it started looking into suspected abuse of office by police officers that it said passed information to a Telegram-based news channel.

At the same time, the Telegram-based news outlet Baza said its editorial office has been subjected to a search. Investigative Committee officers detained Editor-in-Chief Gleb Trifonov, according to his lawyer Alexey Mikhalchik.

TASS has put together key facts about the situation.

Search of the office

- Baza said law enforcement officers searched its office.

- It also said regular and riot police came to the apartment of Editor-in-Chief Gleb Trifonov on Tuesday morning.

- The news outlet said it is unaware what set off the police action.

- The search of the editorial office is related to a case of abuse of office by police officers, a source said.

- Investigative Committee officers detained Trifonov, according to his lawyer.

- The lawyer said Trifonov’s procedural status is yet undetermined.

- According to the lawyer, the events are linked to a case of abuse of office by police officers.

- Investigative Committee officers also detained several other Baza employees and took them in for an interrogation, the outlet’s co-founder, Anatoly Suleimanov, told TASS.

Criminal investigation

- The Moscow office of the Russian Investigative Committee filed charges of abuse of office against certain police officers.

- According to the agency, investigators and operatives uncovered that restricted-access information had been leaked in the Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk and Belgorod regions.

- The leaked data then found its way to news posts on a channel residing on the Telegram messaging app.

- The police officers that abused their office by passing the information to third parties have been detained, according to Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk.

- A representative of a law enforcement agency told TASS that Baza was the recipient of the data.