The Norwegian Helsinki Committee reports that their close colleague Jekatarina (Katja) Sokirjanskaja ended up in hospital yesterday with a smashed nose and a concussion after having been hit in the face by a policeman. The violence occurred at a memorial rally for her colleague, the assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaja. (17-OCT-06)
Text and photo: the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, translated by HRH-F / Nina Luhr
Katja participated in a rally in Nazran, the capital of the republic that borders on the Chechen Republic, to memorize her colleague, the assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaja. The police violently broke up the rally. They blocked off the whole area were around 40 people were gathered, they photographs of Politkovskaya from demonstrators’ hands and beat at least one person, arrested three human rights defenders from the organisation Memorial and the local leader of Red Cross.
-In sum, this looks like a campaign against human rights defenders
The advisor Aage Borchgrevink, below, who works with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee says that these attacks on human rights defenders are turning into a 
trend in the Russian Federation. “We are deeply shocked about the development in the Russian Federation. Katja is one of our closest colleagues and has been working here with us in Oslo. Her organisation, Memorial is one of the most respected human rights organisations in Europe. Considering all the attacks we have witnessed lately, it looks like the authorities have launched a new campaign against Russian human rights defenders, Borchgrevink concludes.
