Wrongly Accused Russian Journalist Golunov Wins $24,000 From Interior Ministry - Lawyer

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2022) Russian journalist Ivan Golunov, who was wrongly accused in 2019, won his lawsuit against the Russian Interior Ministry, which now has to pay him 1.5 million rubles ($24,000) for non-pecuniary damage, Golunov's lawyer Sergei Badamshin told Sputnik on Friday.

In June 2019, Golunov was arrested on the charge of illegal circulation of drugs. The arrest of the prominent investigative journalist caused a wave of public discontent, with opposition media launching a campaign in his support. Five days later, the Russian Interior Ministry said that the case had been dismissed due to a lack of evidence and Golunov was released. The prosecution later said that drugs found on Golunov had been planted by police officers.

"The Moscow City Court satisfied the claim of Ivan Golunov against the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the compensation of non-pecuniary damage caused by the crime of former employees of the Internal Affairs Directorate for ZAO (Western Administrative District) in the amount of 1.

5 million rubles from the Ministry," Badamshin said.

In June 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired head of ZAO Main Directorate Andrey Puchkov and head of Department for Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking Yuri Devyatkin following a petition by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

In May 2021, the police officers that planted drugs in Golunov's flat, Denis Konovalov, Akbar Sergaliev, Roman Feofanov, Maxim Umetbaev, and their former boss Igor Lyakhovets, were found guilty of abuse of authority and falsification of the results of investigative activities, as well as of drug trafficking inside the group. They were sentenced to up to 11 years of in prison.