Attack on Anatoliy Naumov (Zaporozhye)

Anatoliy Naumov, the acting general manager of the Zaporozhye oblast weekly “Dosye”, was attacked in Zaporozhye. According to the words of Valeriy Poliushko, the chief-editor of the newspaper, the attack was committed about 20:30 in the doorway of the apartment house where Naumov lived. Poliushko told: “That evening Naumov went to a shop. When he returned to the house, the door of the house was unlocked, and the light was switched off. The journalist entered the house and was hit on the head”. The criminal (or criminals) disappeared immediately after the attack; they did not try to rob the journalist. The same evening Naumov was taken to the 5^th city hospital, where 9 stitches were put on his face and head. The chief-editor of “Dosye” believes that the attack was connected with Naumov’s work as a journalist and as the acting general manager of the newspaper. The weekly is well known in the oblast for the acute materials on socially important topics.

“Almost a year ago a criminal case was started in the connection with the burglary of my flat, some time later the office of the newspaper was also robbed. We reckon that these crimes are linked”, communicated V. Poliushko. This case is investigated by Margarita Kolesnikova, an investigating officer of the Ordzhonikidze district militia directorate of Zaporozhye. In the opinion of Anatoliy Naumov, the law-enforcers are working rather actively.

The Zaporozhye oblast weekly “Dosye” was founded in June 1999. One of the founders was major-general Oleksandr Poliak, the then city mayor, who died on 22 November 2003 of a cardiac seizure. The run of the newspaper is almost 100 thousand.

17 July 2003, Institute of mass information, «Barometr svobody slova», July 2003