French prosecutors are investigating the suspected poisoning of dissident Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova after she fell ill in exile in Paris.
Ovsyannikova, 45, who fled Russia after staging a live televised protest denouncing the war in Ukraine, saw a powdery substance outside her apartment door Thursday, a source familiar with the investigation told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
He called emergency services and was hospitalized, saying he suspected he had been poisoned, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which helped Ovsyannikova flee Russia with her daughter, confirmed the incident and said its members were by her side in hospital.
Christophe Deloire, the group’s director-general, said the possibility that Ovsyannikova had been poisoned had not been ruled out, although she was feeling better since the incident.
Russian dissident journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was hospitalized in Paris on Thursday after possible poisoning. AFP via Getty Images Ovsyannikova staged an anti-war protest on Russian television in March 2022. AFP via Getty Images
“We have opened an investigation,” said a spokesman for the Paris prosecutor’s office. “He said he was feeling unwell. All we have for now is what he said.”
Ovsyannikova, who works for Russia’s state television channel Channel One, made international headlines in March 2022, when she disrupted the evening news broadcast by appearing behind the anchor with a hand-drawn sign that read, “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they lie to you are here.”
He was charged with disparaging the Russian military and fined the equivalent of $270.
Ovsyannikova later took part in protests outside the Kremlin in July 2022, for which she was arrested and placed under house arrest, before fleeing to France with her daughter.
Ovsyannikova, who fled to France, was sentenced to more than 8 years in absentia in Russia. AFP via Getty Images
Ovsyannikova’s health scare comes just weeks after a Moscow court sentenced her to 8 1/2 years in prison in absentia for spreading false information about the Russian military.
There have been several high-profile cases in recent years involving critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin who died or fell ill under suspicious circumstances.
With Postal wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
