Independent journalist pressurised, racist murder thought 'deserving lenience'

At 4.00 pm on 21 June, a bailiff detained Radio Liberty freelance correspondent Yevgeny Novozhilov in Krasnodar near the territorial court of law where a trial of Cossack ataman Nikolai Drozdov who killed two Meskhetian Turk girls with especial cruelty at the end of last year was coming to a close, a Kavkaz-Center source says. Novozhilov was trying to talk to jurors who had left the courthouse.

The bailiff claimed the journalist had "made an unauthorised audio recording on the courthouse premises." However, the journalist had not been on the courthouse premises, nor made an audio recording. The bailiff took him to the courthouse where he examined his recorder and illegally (without drawing a statement) seized the cassette.

Yevgeny Novozhilov was the only journalist who attended hearings of Drozdov's case. The jury passed a verdict of guilty on 21 June, but they thought Drozdov "deserving lenience." The Radio Liberty correspondent wanted to know why he deserved it.

Yevgeny Novozhilov is practically the only journalists uncontrolled by the local government in Krasnodar with its population of 1 million. He has undergone repeated repressions this year. The journalist's phone is tapped openly and he receives correspondence from abroad in unsealed envelopes with the mark "received damaged."

More about freedom of press in North Caucasus:

• Human Rights Practices in Russia's North Caucasus - 2004

More about Meskhetian Turks:

• Monitoring of the Condition of Ethnic Minorities in the Krasnodar Territory. Autumn 2003/Winter 2003-04
• The Condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory and the Territorial Government Migration Policy
• The condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory, February 2004
• The Condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory, January 2004
• The Condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory, November 2003