人権活動家レフ・ポノマリョフ氏がモスクワで暴行された

67歳の人権活動家、レフ・ポノマリョフ氏(写真)が、自宅前で何者かに襲撃され、顔と上半身を負傷した。「自宅の前で車を降りたとき、男が現れて〈火を貸してくれ〉と言うので、〈吸わないから持ってないんだ〉と答えたら、後ろから別の男が殴りつけてきた。私は倒れて、彼らは何度も蹴った。10分か15分くらい」

ポノマリョフ氏は「メモリアル」の創設者の一人で、反体制運動「連帯」のリーダーでもある。1993年から95年まで、下院議員も務めた。いくつかの国を相手取った訴訟にも参加しており、本人は今回の暴行の動機もそれらに関わっているのではないかと語っている。（4/1　ラジオリバティーより　抄訳）
> Prominent Rights Activist Attacked In Moscow
>
> 01.04.2009
>
> (RFE/RL) -- Russian activist Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human
> Rights movement, has been released from the hospital following an attack
> by unknown assailants outside his Moscow home overnight.
>
> Ponomaryov, 67, suffered bruises and contusions to his face and upper
> body as a result of the incident.
>
> He told RFE/RL's Russian Service that he was approached by a stranger as
> he arrived home late last night.
>
> "I drove up and parked there in the courtyard. And when I opened the
> door, a man came up to me and asked me for a cigarette," Ponomaryov
> said. "I turned toward him and said, 'I don't smoke. Pardon me, but I
> don't smoke.' At that moment, someone hit me from behind. I fell down
> and they began savagely kicking me."
>
> Ponomaryov said the attack continued for some time and that robbery did
> not seem to be a motive.
>
> "They beat me for, I don't know, five or 10 minutes, maybe 15. It's hard
> to say," he says. "I began shouting, loudly. A guard comes out from a
> nearby entrance, and they ran away. That's the whole story."
>
> The attack came shortly after Ponomaryov met with Sabine
> Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly
> of the Council of Europe's human rights committee. She has issued a
> statement calling on the Russian authorities to investigate the crime
> thoroughly.
>
> Amnesty International is also calling for a full and independent
> investigation.
>
> "Far too many abuses against human rights and civil society activists,
> lawyers, and journalists have gone unpunished and perpetrators believe
> they can act with total impunity," said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty's
> Europe and Central Asia program director.
>
> Ponomaryov confirmed that police are investigating.
>
> "The police are working diligently. They arrived, an enormous number of
> police. That is, it is under control," Ponomaryov says. "I have been in
> contact with my lawyer and he is getting involved, and will be following
> to make sure the matter is investigated professionally."
>
> The activist declined to speculate about the possible motives for the
> assault, saying only that he is involved in many difficult
> investigations involving state agencies. He told RFE/RL that he has
> recently called for criminal investigations into the Federal
> Antinarcotics Service and the Federal Corrections Service.
>
> The co-director of For Human Rights, Yevgeny Ikhlov, told gazeta.ru that
> Ponomaryov had complained to police in recent months that he was being
> followed, but police had refused to investigate.
>
> Ponomaryov is a longtime human rights activist. He is also a leader of
> the Solidarity opposition political movement, and he is a founding
> member of the Memorial human rights group. He served as a deputy in the
> State Duma from 1993-95.
>
>
http://www.rferl.org/content/Prominent_Rights_Activist_Attacked_In_Moscow/1565857.html
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The Moscow Times » Issue 4116 »
>
> Rights Activist Ponomaryov Found Beaten
>
> 01 April 2009
> Combined Reports
>
> Human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov was badly beaten in Moscow on
> Tuesday night in an attack that some colleagues linked to his work.
>
> Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human Rights group, was attacked outside
> his home by a number of men who took his mobile phones, his daughter
> Yelena Liptser said.
>
> Ekho Moskvy radio reported that Ponomaryov was beaten after meeting with
> PACE representative Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who was
> scheduled to hold a news conference on human rights later Wednesday.
>
> "It was quite serious, he was hospitalized, but allowed home at about 3
> a.m. As for the cause, it's difficult to know yet, whether it was linked
> to his work or not," Liptser said.
>
> The website for his organization was more direct: "The family and his
> colleagues connect the attack with his human rights activities."
>
> "The brutal attack Tuesday on human rights lawyer Lev Ponomaryov is yet
> another indication of the appalling insecurity in which nonviolent
> critics of the policies of the Russian government operate today," said
> Neil Hicks, international policy adviser for Human Rights First.
>
> Hicks urged U.S. President Barack Obama to use a planned meeting
> Wednesday with President Dmitry Medvedev in London to press for action
> to safeguard human rights.
>
> Ponomaryov has criticized Russia's failure to educate young people about
> the gulag and deplored the strong showing of Joseph Stalin in the recent
> "Face of Russia" competition on state television to find Russia's most
> popular historical figure.
>
> "The younger generation is fed with myths about Stalin. It knows nothing
> about the millions who died in gulag camps but knows well he was a
> strong leader who defeated [Nazi] Germany," Ponomaryov said in December.
>
> Another veteran rights activist, Lyudmila Alexeyeva of the Moscow
> Helsinki Group, told RIA-Novosti that the attack could be linked to
> Ponomaryov's active role in the newly established Solidarity opposition
> movement.
>
> (Reuters, MT)
>
> http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/600/42/375848.htm