Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Europe

The Latest: Drug charges against Russian journalist dropped

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • 11014d53-
    Image 1 of 2

    In this photo, Russia's three major newspapers use the same headline that reads: "I'm/we are Ivan Golunov", which is the name of a prominent Russian investigative reporter, who worked for the independent website Meduza, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, June 10, 2019. In a show of rare solidarity, Kommersant, Vedomosti and RBK, among the most respected daily newspapers in the country, published a joint editorial under the headline "I am/We are Ivan Golunov," calling for a transparent probe into the case of the prominent investigative journalist. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

  • d13b6fc7-
    Image 2 of 2

    In this photo taken on Saturday, June 8, 2019, Ivan Golunov, a prominent Russian investigative reporter, who worked for the independent website Meduza, leaves the cage in a court room in Moscow, Russia. Golunov left the courtroom after the ruling to place him under house arrest until Aug. 7. In the court hearing, he denied being involved with drugs and said he would be willing to help investigators. (Evgeny Feldman/meduza.io via AP)

MOSCOW – The Latest on a Russian journalist arrested on drug charges (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

Russia's interior minister says all charges against an investigative journalist arrested on suspicion of drug dealing have been dropped.

Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said in a statement on Tuesday that the accusations against Ivan Golunov "have not been proven."

Kolokoltsev said Golunov has been released from house arrest and he intends to seek the dismissal of three senior police officials and to investigate others.

Golunov was jailed on Thursday and put under house arrest on Saturday. He denied possessing drugs and the circumstances of his case aroused suspicion among rights activists the journalist had been framed.

___

11:20 a.m.

The speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament has raised concerns about a drug dealing case against a prominent investigative journalist.

Valentina Matviyenko, who is Russia's third most senior official after the president and prime minister, on Tuesday described the criminal inquiry into Ivan Golunov as "a really bad story." She said that she spoke to the prosecutor general who promised to take the case under his personal control.

Golunov, who works for the independent website Meduza, was beaten and kept in custody for 12 hours without a lawyer after he was stopped by police in Moscow on Thursday, according to his lawyer. He was transferred to house arrest following a public outpouring of support, but he still faces drug dealing charges.