A prominent Russian investigative journalist and a lawyer were attacked and brutally beaten in the country’s Chechnya province on Tuesday. Reporter Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov, had arrived in Chechnya to attend the trial of Zarema Musayeva, the mother of two activists challenging Chechen authorities.

AP reported citing media that a dozen unidentified assailants attacked Milashina and Nemov with clubs, held them at gunpoint and broke their equipment outside the airport after blocking their vehicle. Milashina reported suffered a brain injury and several of her fingers were broken in the attack.

On the other hand, Nemov suffered a deep cut on his leg. Both of them were taken to a hospital in the Grozney city for treatment.

“They threw the driver out of the car, got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, forced me down to my knees and put a gun to my head,” said Milashina in a video from the hospital.

In another interview, Milashina said that the attackers told Nemov that “there is no need to defend anyone here” and threatened to cut her fingers. Nemov also said that the assailants held him at gunpoint and told him to file a mercy plea.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson said that the Russian President Vladimir Putin was apprised of the incident, adding that the serious assault “warrants energetic measures” from law enforcement agencies.

The attack was condemned by several Russian agencies. A probe has been ordered by Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s top criminal investigation agency.

This is not the first time that Milashina, who has won widespread acclaim for investigative reporting on human rights violations, has faced threats and attacks. She and a lawyer were beaten up by a dozen people in their hotel in 2020. She was also forced to temporarily leave Russia citing threats from Chechen authorities.

Despite the recent attack, Milashina said she will attend Musaveya’s appeal hearing.

Musayeva was sentenced by a Grozny court to five-and-a-half years of imprisonment for insulting and violently resisting police, hours after the attack on Milashina. She was arrested from her home in Nizhny Novgorod and taken to Chechnya in 2022.

Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov has been widely criticised by international rights groups for alleged extrajudicial killings, torture and abductions of dissenters. A famous investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead at her apartment on October 2006 and Natalia Estemirova, a human rights defender who strongly criticised Kadyrov, was kidnapped and later found dead in 2009.

In Politkovskaya’s case, the gunmen and an ex-Moscow police officer were convicted along with three others. Estemirova’s murder remains unsolved till date.

Kadyrov’s security forces have also played an active role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(with AP inputs)

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