US university researcher released in southwest Russia Published on April 2, 2006
Makhachkala, Russia - US university researcher Kelly McEvers was to leave for Moscow on Sunday after four days of police questioning in the volatile southwest Russian province of Dagestan, the woman's lawyer said.
"Today she is planning to fly to Moscow," Yusup Dzhakhbarov, a lawyer for McEvers, told AFP.
Police had been holding McEvers as a witness in a case against a man accused of carrying out a series of attacks in Chechnya, Dzhakhbarov said.
The man's phone number was apparently found in one of McEvers' notebooks but she said she did not know him, Dzhakhbarov added.
McEvers is a fellow at Johns Hopkins University's International Reporting Project who has produced radio reports and written articles about Russia and Southeast Asia for US publications as a freelance journalist.
She was also asked about her contacts with Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev, who lives in London, and was questioned about working as a journalist without proper accreditation.
Police had not returned notebooks, a laptop computer, a dictaphone, comptuer disks and a camera seized from McEvers on Thursday, the lawyer said.
Dagestan neighbours war-torn Chechnya, where a guerrilla conflict between separatist rebels and Russian troops is continuing. Russian forces stormed Chechnya in 1999 after defeat in a 1994-1996 war.
Acknowledgement: All available information and documents in "Justice For North Caucasus Group" is provided for the "fair use". There should be no intention for ill-usage of any sort of any published item for commercial purposes and in any way or form. JFNC is a nonprofit group and has no intentions for the distribution of information for commercial or advantageous gain. At the same time consideration is ascertained that all different visions, beliefs, presentations and opinions will be presented to visitors and readers of all message boards of this site. Providing, furnishing, posting and publishing the information of all sources is considered a right to freedom of opinion, speech, expression, and information while at the same time does not necessarily reflect, represent, constitute, or comprise the stand or the opinion of this group. If you have any concerns contact us directly at:
eagle@JusticeForNorthCaucasus.com
