France Investigates 4 Men Planning For Attack On Exiled Russian Opposition Figures

UNSPLASH/Ge ILLUSTRATION Chevtchenko

JAKARTA - France's anti-terrorism prosecutor opened an official investigation into four men arrested by police on suspicion of planning an attack on an exiled Russian opposition figure.

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office declined to name the Russian opposition suspected of being the target, although Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian citizen based in Birritz, said on his Telegram account the plan was being directed.

"Once again, thank you very much to the special unit of the French police who is responsible for my physical protection and security. Thank you very much to the French counterintelligence and counter-pionage service," Osechkin wrote on the social media platform.

Osechkin manages a human rights group called Gulagu.net that monitors and uncovers violations in Russia's prison system.

The four men, aged 26 to 38, were arrested on Monday as part of an investigation by the DGSI domestic intelligence police.

They are suspected of being members of a terrorism organization and planning "crime against people".

"They have undergone formal investigations and are being held in prison," said a spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office.

Spokesperson for the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office declined to specify the citizenship of the men and where they were arrested.

In November 2021, Osechkin was put on the Russian wanted list after Gulagu.net said it had received major leaks of documents, photos and videos proving that hundreds of people in the entire prison system had been tortured and raped by other inmates on the orders of prison officials.

Their placement in formal investigations in France did not imply guilt or directed to trial, but showed the judicial authority considered the case sufficient to continue the initial investigation.