Novaya Gazeta reports that Karinna Moskalenko, a lawyer representing the family of a murdered Russian journalist, has mercury poisoning. Mercury has been found in Moskalenko’s car; husband and children are also sick; police are investigating.
The following is a World Movement for Democracy email alert:
DemocracyAlert: Russian Human Rights Lawyer Karinna Moskalenko Poisoned
According to Novaya Gazeta, an attempt has been made in France on the life of Russian human rights lawyer and World Movement participant Karinna Moskalenko. On October 13, the prosecutor in Strasbourg launched an investigation into the placement of mercury, a potent poison, into Ms. Moskalenko’s car. Ms. Moskalenko noticed that her health, and the health of her husband and children, has been deteriorating over the past week, but she does not know for sure when the car was contaminated.On October 15, Ms. Moskalenko is scheduled to participate in the preliminary hearings in the murder case of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Ms. Politkovskaya, the respected Russian journalist and human rights activist known for her work on the Chechen conflict and opposition to President Putin, was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in October 2006. Ms. Moskalenko represents the family of the assassinated journalist. She has also represented torture victims in Chechnya, relatives of those killed in the 2004 Beslan school siege, and survivors of the hostage crisis at Moscow’s Nord-Ost theatre in 2002. She has also represented former owner of Russia’s YUKOS oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Garry Kasparov, the leader of the anti-Putin opposition group “The Other Russia.”
–Jonathan Werve
