Reporters without borders (press release), France
Dec 4 2007
Kazan police harass parents of filmmaker Natalia Petrova
The authorities in the Tatar capital of Kazan are harassing the
parents of documentary filmmaker Natalia Petrova, who herself left
the city after being attacked by police in September, Reporters
Without Borders said today. Plain-clothes police arrested her parents
at a polling station on 2 December, took them to a police station and
did not release until shortly before midnight.
`Now that Petrova’s assailants in the Kazan police force can no
longer get at her, the Kazan police are inflicting reprisals on her
parents and taking them hostage,’ the press freedom organisation
said. `It is now up to the regional authorities to call these police
officers to order.’
Her parents, Nina Petrova, 70, and Gennadi Petrov, 84, who are being
sued for defamation for talking about the police attack on their
daughter, were arrested by a plain-clothes policeman just after they
entered Kazan voting station No. 161. At around 8 pm, they were taken
to a police station and questioned separately there. They were
finally escorted home at around 11:30 pm.
Natalia Petrova was assaulted by police on 6 September at the home
she shared with her parents and two daughters, who all tried to
intervene when policemen repeatedly punched and kicked her inside the
apartment. They finally took her unconscious to a police station
where the mistreatment continued.
After the attack, Petrova fled Tatarstan with her daughters fearing
further reprisals.
She worked in Chechnya during the first war there. She has also
worked in Abkhazia and Karabakh. Her films include `Abkhazia mon
amour,’ `Children of Karabakh’ and `Ancient land of the Chechens.’
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