Russian editor Pyotr Lipatov has been exonerated of charges that he fomented extremism by publishing articles that created “negative stereotypes and negative images of members of the security forces,” among other faults. A court on Tuesday threw out the case against Lipatov saying that the the expert testimony that prosecutors had relied upon to prove that the articles were extremist was unpersuasive, the New York Times has reported.
The newspaper, Consensus and Truth, which is in the city of Klin, has regularly focused attention on the shortcomings of local government, and the authorities have long sought to shut it down. Had they won the case, prosecutors would have had grounds to do so and might even have sought criminal penalties, including jail time, for Lipatov, the Times said.
Excerpts: [Link]
They had said that articles in the newspaper about local corruption, drug trafficking and illegal immigrants were extremist in nature. The authorities have often used the extremism law to suppress the opposition across Russia.
In late May, a lower court judge in Klin ruled in Lipatov’s favor, and he said an appeals court upheld that decision on Tuesday, all but ending the prosecutors’ case. Prosecutors in Klin did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Lipatov said the publicity had also had an impact in a separate case that involved him. At an opposition rally in March 2009, he was beaten by plainclothes police officers, but investigators refused to open an inquiry, even though the attack was videotaped and posted on the Internet.
Instead, the investigators tried to make Lipatov confess to having provoked the beating, but he refused. When the Times first contacted the investigators about why they had not questioned the plainclothes police officers, they stepped up the pressure on Lipatov.
