ANKARA, June 15 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian reporter who was allegedly detained in Istanbul by police and beaten up on Friday has been released and will not be deported, the Russian consul in Istanbul said on Saturday.
“No case has been brought against Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko and he will not be deported,” said Nikolai Kuzovenko. “Arkady has just left the building of the prosecutor, accompanied by members of [the consulate] staff,” he added.
Babchenko, who was covering the ongoing protests in Turkey for Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, spent the night in a police cell after being detained near Taksim Square in Istanbul late on Friday.
On Saturday, the reporter told Ekho Moskvy radio station that he had been dragged and beaten.
“I can hardly move my left leg, and can only partially move my right one. I can’t stand up,” he said shortly before his release.
Russian media reported on Saturday that he had been detained for recording video footage without permission.
Novaya Gazeta said in a statement on its website earlier that Babchenko had been detained by a group of people in civilian clothes when taking photos of police cars.
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Photo Chronicle of Istanbul Protests
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Photo Chronicle of Istanbul Protests
“When I tried to wrench myself from their grasp, they dragged me to a back alley and started beating me,” the paper quoted Babchenko as saying.
At least five people have died and thousands have been injured in anti-government protests in Turkey that began two weeks ago, sparked by government plans to redevelop a park in central Istanbul.
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