RUSSIAN COURT SENTENCES REPORTER TO 7 YEARS FOR EXTORTION

27.08.2004 [20:34]
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As reports AzerTAj’s special correspondent, Moscow's Tverskoi court on Thursday sentenced a journalist to seven and a half years in prison for extortion.

The court found reporter Yulia Pelekhova guilty of grand extortion.

The defendant's lawyer Alexander Tovt said he would appeal against the verdict.

According to investigators, Pelekhova, who wrote for the newspapers Sovershenno Sekretno /Top Secret/ and Versiya /Version/, and was editor-in-chief of the Dossier.ru-Voice of Secret Services Internet edition was extorting 100,000 dollars from director general of the Howard-Consult firm Oksana Tokareva.

The reporter promised, in exchange for money, not to release the compromising information about the Avto-Import-Dilizhans company at which Tokareva was a secretary.

During a journalist's probe, Pelekhova found documents which allegedly confirmed that Avto-Import-Dilizhans cashed money through dummy firms.

The reporter was detained in a restaurant in Moscow's Tverskaya Street on January 28, as she was receiving part of the money: 38,500 dollars.

RUSSIAN COURT SENTENCES REPORTER TO 7 YEARS FOR EXTORTION

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