An investigation was opened in mid-September for "
threats
" against Vladimir Ossetchkine, director of an NGO specializing in the defense of Russian prisoners, a refugee in Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), AFP learned on Tuesday, September 20 from sources. close to the investigation.
This opponent of the regime of Vladimir Putin, a political refugee in France, claims to have escaped an assassination attempt on the evening of September 12 while he was at his home, on the Basque coast, with his wife and children.
"
On September 12, around 9:00 p.m., I was at home, I was working in the dark, I hadn't turned on the light
," he told AFP by telephone.
Torture and Corruption
"
When my wife and children arrived, we turned on the light and started to have the children eat dinner, and I noticed a red dot (possibly a laser sight, editor's note) moving on the railing of one terraces and then headed towards me on the wall
,” continued the director of the NGO Gulagu.net, which regularly denounces acts of torture and corruption within the Russian penitentiary system.
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“
We turned off the light, we lay down on the ground, closed the shutters and called the police
”, relates Vladimir Ossetchkine, who evokes gunfire.
“
When the police came, they entered the house from the other side and when they tried to open the shutter of one of the balconies, they also heard shots, they then questioned neighbors who also heard those shots.
»
Investigation for “threats”
According to sources familiar with the matter, who neither confirm nor deny the shootings, and are cautious about the facts, an investigation for "
threats
" and not for attempted homicide has been opened and entrusted to the judicial police.
Contacted by AFP, the Bayonne prosecutor's office did not wish to communicate on this procedure.
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Vladimir Ossetchkine's NGO broadcast videos of rape in Russian prisons in 2021, as well as testimonies from victims and, extremely rare, torturers, leading to the opening of an investigation by the authorities.
She claims to have more than 1,000 videos showing torture in prison.
The opponent claims to have been informed, at the beginning of February, of an assassination plan targeting him and to have since been placed under police protection.