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No Charges in Attack on Volunteer Firefighters

Greenpeace Russia

An investigation into a violent attack on environmental activists has ended without any arrests or charges, according to reporting by OVD-info.

In September 2016, eight men assaulted environmental activists from Greenpeace and Ecological Watch who were working as volunteer firefighters in the Krasnodar region of Russia. The assailants slashed car tires and even threw a flash-bang grenade into an activist's vehicle.

Some of the activists were beaten so badly they suffered a broken nose and broken ribs. In the most violent incident, a volunteer firefighter was thrown to the ground and had a gun pointed at him.

Police subsequently opened an investigation for theft, inflicting bodily harm and attempted murder. However, the attempted murder charges were eventually dropped after investigators reportedly failed to establish the suspect's identity.

The police continued their investigations into the assault for eight months. However, after documents related to the two other criminal charges were turned over to the prosecutor's office in March, they went missing. The cases were subsequently halted.

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