Head of Presidential Human Rights Council appeals to St Petersburg city prosecutor over Anna Sharogradskaya's detention

posted 10 Jun 2014, 08:23 by Rights in Russia   [ updated 11 Jun 2014, 19:18 ]
6 June 2014

Source: HRO.org (info
On 5 June, Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the Presidential Council for human rights and the development of civil society, sent a letter to Sergei Litvinenko, St. Petersburg city prosecutor, concerning the detention of Anna Sharogradskaya, director of the Regional Press Institute, at Pulkovo airport.

The appeal, which has been published on the Presidential Council's website, reads: "The Council respectfully asks you, Sergei Vasilevich, to order a very careful investigation of this matter. The Council would be extremely grateful if you would inform us of the results of the investigation and of the measures taken".

Anna Sharogradskaya was detained on 5 June without explanation and spent four hours in a screening room at the airport. During this time her laptop and other devices were confiscated. In an interview carried by numerous media, the director of the Regional Press Institute linked her detention to the fact that on 26 May the Institute had appealed to Saint Petersburg's Kuibyshevsky district court, asking for the deputy prosecutor of Central Region, A. Kamensky, and the prosecutor's office to be declared to have acted illegally in inspecting the organisation for a second time.

Translated by Suzanne Eade Roberts
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