Human Rights Watch Russian employee receives threatening text messages
MOSCOW. Oct 4 (Interfax) - Human Rights Watch says its leading Russian employee is receiving threatening text messages.
"Human Rights Watch leading researcher Tatiana Lokshina has received a number of threatening text messages," the Moscow office of the international human rights organization told Interfax on Thursday.
The source said they had informed the Russian authorities and demanded an inquiry and punishment for the senders.
Direct and indirect threats offered details of Lokshina and her family's movement, and of her pregnancy and house arrest. These details were not public knowledge.
"The fact that the senders of the threatening text messages possessed information, which was known only to Tanya and her family arouses suspicions that our employee was being watched, probably by the police or security services," the rights defenders said.
Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth told Interfax that the authorities should hold an inquiry to ensure the security of human rights defenders.
He said the threats were serious and aimed at impeding the organization's work. He also said they had officially appealed to the authorities because they were convinced that the threat of physical reprisal was real.
Lokshina told a press conference in the Interfax central office on Thursday she has reported the threats to the Federal Security Service and sent copies of the reports to the Russian prosecutor general, interior minister, the head of the presidential human rights council, and the human rights ombudsman.
Lokshina said she has met with the ombudsman, who promised to ensure that the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry react to the reports.
Lokshina said she has received nine SMS messages in three days, in which she was threatened with miscarriage.
"It was obvious that they were being sent by people who are able to tap my phone or conduct other forms of surveillance, not just by people who don't like me personally or who don't like Human Rights Watch as an organization," Lokshina said.
Lokshina said the information contained in the text messages could only have been received "in constant close surveillance, which apparently involved the use of operative capabilities."
Lokshina said the threats stopped after she filed a complaint with the law enforcement agencies on Monday.
