Journalist vs. the Crimean mafia: who will win?

The court process against Evpatoria journalist Vladimir Lutyev is coming to the last stage: the appeal court of Sevastopol started to consider the case per se. Vladimir Lutyev is accused of the premeditated attempt on the life of Mykola Kotliarevskiy, an MP from the Crimean Autonomous Republic, made on order; deliberate false evidence, forcing witnesses to refuse from evidence and a number of economic crimes. We are continuing our own investigation of this case, since some circumstances and events testify that Kotliarevskiy, as well as some officers of the Crimean DFOC, who allegedly found the guilty of the attempt on the MP’s life, were personally interested in accusation and condemnation of the journalist.

 (The Institute of mass information, 17 November 2003, www.imi.org.ua.)