Lawyer Elena Ponomareva told TASS that as a result of the attack on her, the police in Moscow opened a criminal case on hooliganism.
“After I wrote a statement to the police, they opened a case under Part 1 of Art. 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hooliganism), ”the news agency quotes Ponomareva as saying. The lawyer herself connects the incident with her professional activities.
“From my point of view, what happened is connected with the investigation of the drug trafficking case, in which I was interrogated in the Lytkarino court in 2021 as a witness. The defendants were convicted and sentenced to serious terms, and everything that happened to me could have been revenge for not confirming their version in court,” she added.
This morning it became known that at one of the public transport stops on Rublevsky Highway in Moscow, Ponomarev was doused with green paint, because of which she received a second-degree burn to her eyes. According to the lawyer, this was not the first attack on her. Earlier, she also received threats, and unknown persons punctured tires and poured paint over the car. According to the capital's bar association, the woman was being monitored because the threatening messages contained pictures of her relatives, dogs and property.
The lawyer wrote that after previous attacks she contacted the police, «but no results» . As the commission for the protection of the rights of lawyers added in a conversation with Advocatskaya Street, Ponomareva was under state protection due to several cases of threats to her life.