Pro-Russian Activists Detain Ukrainian Journalist for "War Crimes"

[Bosonic]

Source: The Moscow Times

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have detained a Ukrainian journalist, accusing her of "war crimes" during the "Euromaidan" protests that toppled the Moscow-backed president, her lawyer said on Monday.

There were also reports of other journalists being held.

Irma Krat, 29, was held late on Sunday by militants in the city of Slovyansk, said Oleg Veremienko, a lawyer for the online television news site Krat runs. Russian Internet channel Life News posted video of her being escorted by masked men in combat gear and of an activist saying she was under arrest.

The channel showed a woman it said was Krat, her face hidden by a scarf, saying in Ukrainian: "They detained me but they are treating me all right. They will check the reports I've filed and then they'll decide when to let me go."

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/pro-russian-activists-detain-ukrainian-journalist-for-quotwar-crimesquot/498521.html

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[7962]

1. A Journalist accused of war crimes? Putin just keeps dropping lower. nt

[OKNancy]

2. so, are these the actions of heroes or terrorists?

or assholes. This really makes me sick and it makes me sick when I read people defending these creeps.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Tit for tat ?

Russian journalist detained, questioned for 15 hours by Ukraine law enforcement.

A journalist for Russia’s LifeNews has been released after being detained and questioned for 15 hours by Ukraine law enforcement. Police allegedly “kicked” the reporter and “other peaceful civilians” during an armed confrontation in Mariupol on Wednesday.

>

Kristina Babayeva was detained following an armed confrontation between anti-government protesters and soldiers stationed at a military base in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Wednesday. Her colleague, camerawoman Maria Povalyaeva, still remains at the local police station.

>

Babayeva said she was working at the scene when the shooting began. She said the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and police then “launched an operation,” throwing her and other peaceful civilians on the ground.

“Many were kicked, including me. They were talking to us really harshly and said that if we moved a finger they would shoot to kill,” the journalist said, adding that she received several bruises.

http://rt.com/news/lifenews-journalist-detained-ukraine-248/

If by chance you don't use that expression in the US - Tit for tat is English slang for equivalent retaliation.

[blackspade]

4. So, the assault on journalists have begun by the Russians...

How is it that masked gunmen have the right to detain anyone?
Are they the cops? If not, they they are kidnappers and criminals.
This is what happens when right-wing thugs are allowed to be 'the law.'

[Catherina]

5. Information from her press conference today, press card out of date, ties to neonazis

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 2h

At presser, Krat's press pass is brought out, 'self-defence' draw attention to its being out of date. #Sloviansk

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 2h

Krat is accused by Self-defence of, effectively, working as spy for the Maidan side. She disagrees to Self-defence. pic.twitter.com/UuxshhoJDm

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 1h

Krat says 'there's no law now - what we have in Ukraine is total anarchy'. #Sloviansk #Ukraine p

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 1h

After Krat is taken away, Pravy Sektor items reported as recovered from yesterday's shooting displayed. #Sloviansk

Simon Shuster ‏@shustry 2h

Irma Krat presser video - 'I don't want Europe, don't want Russia - want one Ukraine' -

…

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 52m

Short vid, it's Irma Krat, who seems a strong, confident person, but her press pass is out of date -

#Ukraine

Der Streitapfel ‏@GRAFIXEL 55m

@GrahamWP_UK ITAR-TASS report that she will be released soon, any evidence for that?
GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK

@GRAFIXEL It seems likely to me, she didn't seem in any serious danger of life in my honest opinion.

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 42m

As for Krat presser - journos from international media in there. Can't say I share all her politics, but hope, and think that she'll be ok.

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 34m

Irma Krat, who said Pravy Sektor photo was 'just a photo', says here she respects Russian language -

…

This is the photo reference is the heading photo on her Facebook page

The background image on her Facebook page shows her standing with a group of men in yellow arm bands marked with a sign resembling the Wolfsangel, an emblem associated with the neo-Nazi movement. Set against a yellow background, the black Wolfsangel is also used by the ultranationalist group Patriots of Ukraine, whose members joined the forces of Right Sector during the revolution. Although Krat’s friends deny that she has ties to neo-Nazism or Right Sector, they say she was the founder of the so-called “women’s hundred,” the only female detachment of revolutionary guards to help protect the protest camp and its barricades in Kiev. That fact, combined with her apparent sympathizes for the nationalist movement, would be enough to make her a target for the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

http://time.com/69910/ukraine-separatists-take-prisoners/

But what's not mentioned in the Western press is that Irma Krat is the founder of one of the core 40 Maidan '100 units' known as the the Zhinocha Sotnia (the Women 100) and showed up in Sloviansk right when the checkpoint attack happened and had no camera or any other journalist equipment, not to mention the outdated press card.

People can scoff all they want but the hard right is on record for sending 100 activists to the region and the Pravij activist Sloviansk captured a few days ago said in his statement that he was expecting to meet other right wing activists there.

The Lviv Team was told by Right Sector activists that they had begun recruiting for their paramilitary structure on 14 April. They said that approximately 100 paramilitaries had already been deployed to Donetsk region and were being trained in the eastern part of the country. One of the paramilitaries seen in Lviv was wearing a new military uniform, including a flak jacket, but carried no weapons.

April 15, 2014
http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/117787

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 21m

Ask Irma Krat difference between this and Euromaidan. Her answer 'in principle, just the same'-

… #Ukraine #Euromaidan

GrahamWPhillips ‏@GrahamWP_UK 17m

Irma Krat confirms she is being looked after fine, at #Sloviansk presser -

… #Ukraine #Russia

[newthinking]

8. Thank you Catherine - So much twisting to misdirect people

"
But what's not mentioned in the Western press is that Irma Krat is the founder of one of the core 40 Maidan '100 units' known as the the Zhinocha Sotnia (the Women 100) and showed up in Sloviansk right when the checkpoint attack happened and had no camera or any other journalist equipment, not to mention the outdated press card.

People can scoff all they want but the hard right is on record for sending 100 activists to the region and the Pravij activist Sloviansk captured a few days ago said in his statement that he was expecting to meet other right wing activists there. "

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Kidnapping is still kidnapping, even when done to people without cameras

You shouldn't need a press card to stop it. Meeting people in your own country is not an excuse for someone to kidnap you. There is no excuse for kidnapping, in fact. "Citizen's arrests" involve handing someone over to the police, not kidnapping them.

[Bosonic]

6. Also former mayor of Sloviansk, Nellie Shtepa, 'being held' for unspecified reasons

At presser today, Sloviansk 'people's mayor' confirms former mayor Nellie Shtepa 'being held', will not say more.

https://twitter.com/GrahamWP_UK/status/458280543008722944

Mayor Nellie Shtepa welcoming concerned citizens to Sloviansk (Apr 12 2014):

[Igel]

7. Yeah, Shtepa made a minor mistake.

She said she was acting all pro-separatist in hopes of reducing violence.

So, as with a lot of other chiefs of various things, she was "led away" by the separatists.

[Bosonic]

9. Report: Vice Journalist Captured in Eastern Ukraine

Report: Vice Journalist Captured in Eastern Ukraine

Vice journalist Simon Ostrovsky has been taken by militia in Eastern Ukraine, a Russian news outlet reports.

The reporter for Vice News, who has been filing a series of compelling video dispatches from Ukraine since early March, was "taken" in Sloviansk, the Russian media outlet gazeta.ru reports.

The "People's mayor" of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, said that the militia has taken the American journalist, Simon Ostrovsky, hostage, reports a correspondent for Gazeta.ru, Ponomarev announced this during a press conference at the House of Culture in Slavyansk.

Sloviansk's self-appointed mayor, Vachislav Ponomaryov, reportedly held a press conference where he called Ostrovsky's parents to assure them that their son was okay, the outlet reports. "Nobody abducted him, nobody is holding him hostage, he's with us now in at the SBU, preparing material and working," Ponomaryov reportedly said, raising the possibility that Ostrovsky is merely embedded with the militia.

http://mashable.com/2014/04/22/vice-journalist-captured-ukraine/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link