Journalists

Date: 20/01/2010
First: Konstantin
Surname: POPOV
Sex/Age: M, 47
Incident: homicide
Motive: nJ
Place: (detoxification centre)
Job: journalist
Medium: press, TV
Federal District Plus: SIBERIA
Street, Town, Region: Tomsk
Freelance: No
Local/National: local
Other Ties: Yukos subsidiary press service
Cause of Death: beaten
Legal Qualification: 111.4 (manslaughter) and 286.3 a & c (abuse of office)
Impunity: trial, conviction

[Updated 24 April 2010]

Journalist Konstantin Popov, 47, died on Wednesday 20 January 2010 as a result of a severe beating he received, while intoxicated, from a police sergeant over two weeks earlier.

Popov worked for a variety of local media, newspapers and television, as well as heading the press service of the Tomskneft oil company. Detained on 4 January for being intoxicated in public, apparently, and taken to the treatment centre for such cases, he was there violently assaulted by the sergeant. Several hours later Popov was sent home and then taken to hospital by ambulance. He never regained consciousness following urgent operations on his injuries.

The 26 year old policeman responsible for his injuries was identified and charged on 15 January with committing a serious assault and abuse of office. Russia’s media monitors are now investigating a death which has appalled Popov’s colleagues, and society in the Tomsk Region and at the national level.

Russia’s human rights activists are alarmed by the journalist’s death and have called for a more serious approach to reforming the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “It must become a more civilian organisation,” said Ludmila Alexeyeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group. “It needs new people with a new way of thinking that focuses on defending the rights of our citizens. Meanwhile, we continue to hear that a policeman has beaten up or killed someone.”

Victor Kress, the Tomsk Region governor, said that this tragic event would not go unpunished. “This outrageous incident should serve as a serious reason for carrying out a thoroughgoing cleansing of the ranks of the Region’s police service, and a change in the way the department deals with its staff,” the Tomsk Region administration’s press service quoted the governor as saying. Kress emphasised that “those who were involved in this tragedy must serve the full punishment”. He expressed his condolences to the family and friends of Konstantin Popov.

Interfax.ru (Moscow), 20 January 2010

YEVSYUKOV-MITAYEV

Konstantin Popov, a journalist, had drunk a certain amount. That’s not a criminal offence. He was sitting at home and turned up the music which, of course, was rather less pleasant. The neighbours called the police. You can understand how they felt. Then the police took Popov took the drying-out centre. That’s a little harder to understand because he was not so drunk, or so stupid, as to continue playing loud music after the police had been to see him. Still, they took him away and put him in the detoxification centre. And now Konstantin Popov is no longer alive.

Anton Orekh, Yezhednevny zhurnal, 21 January 2010

TOMSK SAYS FAREWELL

Today the civic funeral of Konstantin Popov will take place and, between 2 and 4 pm, a mass will be said for him in the Bogoyavlensky cathedral church in Tomsk.

He died on 20 January without regaining consciousness. A 26-year-old policeman Alexei Mitayev is suspected of having beaten up the journalist. He was charged on 15 January and is now under arrest. He is due to undergo tests to determine his mental state of health.

Konstantin graduated from the journalist faculty of Tomsk University in 1985. He wrote for the Molodoi Leninets newspaper, worked in the Yukos press service and, more recently, was on the staff of the Tema publishing house.

News in Tomsk (news.vtomske.rú), 22 January 2010

REGION’S POLICE CHIEF DISMISSED

Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Minister of Internal Affairs, has sacked Major-General Victor Grechman, head of the Tomsk Region police department. Interfax reports that this was on the orders of President Medvedev.

Earlier Grechman had stated more than once that he was not prepared to resign over the row arising from the cruel beating journalist Konstantin Popov received from a policeman. “I have worked in the police for 39 years,” said Grechman, “and have spent 19 of them in the Tomsk Region department. First I must find out everything about this situation for myself because we are still carrying out our preliminary investigation. Then let those in charge of the Ministry say what they think of me,” Grechman told journalists.

BBC from Russian sources, 22 January 2010

THE FINAL CHARGES

Final charges have now been brought in the Popov murder case against Alexei Mitayev who is accused of murdering the journalist. He is charged under part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code (Intentional Infliction of a Grave Injury, leading to death of victim by negligence) and also of parts 3a and 3c of Article 286 (exceeding official powers, with the use of force and the infliction of grave consequences).

Mitayev in part admits his guilt and declined to give testimony.

Polit.ru, 11 March 2010