Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Russian activist beaten in Moscow

|
|
 
  
Published: April 1, 2009 at 9:46 PM

MOSCOW, April 1 (UPI) -- A human rights activist and former member of the Russian parliament says he was beaten outside his home in Moscow.

The assault of Lev Ponomaryov, 67, leader of the organization For Human Rights, follows similar attacks on opposition figures in Moscow, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.

The incident late Tuesday occurred after he had stepped out of his car and a stranger asked him to light a cigarette. Ponomaryov said someone else struck him in the head. He said he was knocked to the ground and kicked and beaten by two or three men until a doorman rescued him.

"It was an ordered attack," he was quoted as saying. "It's connected with my human rights activities. I've been involved in a few sensitive issues lately."

Ponomaryov, a Soviet-era dissident, was elected to parliament in the early 1990s. The news service said he worked to expose abuses in the Russian prison system, and he helped establish the Solidarity democratic opposition movement last year.

Recently, he has criticized the government's prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon

and Kremlin critic. He is being tried on embezzlement and money laundering charges.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 25
Meryl Streep and Colin Firth attend the "BAFTA" ceremony in London
View Caption
fark
"Any self-important, self-propagating elitist, I will happily bare my buttocks to"
Note to the youngsters out there: if a legend dies and you want to sneak into his or her inner sanctum...
You don't have to be too smart to coach high school sports. Just smart enough to not post nude photos...
There's vandalizing your school, and then there's doing a million dollars damage to your school
Police say Taylor Burnham, 18, was only wearing cowboy boots as she led police on a Sunday morning...
If you're working as a dog groomer and accidentally chop off a dog's ear, don't try to glue it back,...