Grigory Pasko: Another Attempt on a Russian Lawyer

Russian lawyer – a dangerous profession? By Grigory Pasko Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. The procuracy of Strasbourg has opened a criminal case based on the fact of an attempt to poison the famous Russian lawyer and human rights advocate Karinna Moskalenko and her family. As various mass information media have reported, in Moskalenko’s automobile was found a large quantity of a substance that looks like mercury. The French police are now conducting an investigation and the necessary expert studies. Yesterday, Moskalenko had appeared in the European Court of Human Rights. She had reported that during the course of the past week the state of her health had deteriorated several times. At the present time, the condition of Karinna Moskalenko and of the members of her family is satisfactory.

On 15 October of the year 2008, Karinna Moskalenko is supposed to take part in a preliminary session of the military court in the case of the killing of “Novaya gazeta” observer Anna Politkovskaya in the capacity of lawyer for the victims. In addition to this, Karinna Moskalenko participates in many high-profile criminal cases, including representing the interests of former head of “YUKOS” Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as well as the interests of citizens of Russia in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in cases, associated, in part, with crimes by the siloviki structures and special services in Chechnya.Karinna Moskalenko, lawyer:I don’t know how long this substance was in the car, and how long we breathed its vapors – we were constantly driving around Strasbourg, where I was supposed to appear in the European Court of Human Rights. I started feeling bad – everything got swollen, a cough appeared, I even had to refer to a military hospital. But to what extent this is associated with poisoning, I don’t know either. Despite feeling bad, yesterday I nevertheless managed to appear in court.Commentary from journalist Grigory Pasko:What do I think? First of all, Karinna is a sufficiently experienced lawyer not to go around making mountains out of molehills. She doesn’t need cheap sensationalism: she is a famous lawyer and a wonderful specialist in the area of her field, there is no need for her to be generating PR for herself in such a manner. So this is serious business. Second, in Russia she has already had no small number of brushes with those who opposed her, who impeded her work as a lawyer … No doubt the FSB too had no reason to love her: she had prepared for consideration in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg the «spy» cases of the diplomat Moiseyev, whose application this court satisfied just recently, ruling that Russia is a state that has violated the law in relation to this person. At the initial stage, she had likewise been preparing my application to the ECHR as well.This incident has shown yet again: in our country and beyond its confines, people who oppose the tyranny of the state even in the slightest way and even about the slightest thing ALWAYS find themselves in the crosshairs of killers. And judging by the fact that the state has been unable for decades to capture and convict the killers in these “contract killing” cases, the situation is not going to be changing for the better. It is already clear that neither the killers of Anna Politkovskaya, nor those who put out the contract on her, will be found. It is already clear that for today’s power, the defenders of people whom the power hates – people like Khodorkovsky, for example – become the objects of hatred themselves.Someone on the internet wrote: it’s primitive somehow – mercury… The fact is that there’s no reason for today’s cold-blooded thugs to think up anything complicated. With Litvinenko they understood that even something complicated, with carefully concealed tracks, still becomes evident. And in any case, the RF state will do everything to make sure the real poisoners-killers are not punished.It is heavy to realize all this, but I can imagine a list of those people whose life also may be subjected to danger. By the way, you know who these are people too…