Moscow's court arrests Bulgarian journalist and Bellingcat Head Christo Grozev in absentia

Lefortovsky Court of Moscow has arrested in absentia the investigative journalist and head of the Bellingcat investigative journalism group, Bulgarian citizen Christo Grozev.

Source: Interfax Russian news agency

Grozev is accused in Russia of illegally crossing the border (Art. 322.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). If the journalist is found guilty, he faces up to two years in prison.

"Regarding Grozev, the court chose a preventive measure in the form of taking him into custody for a period of two months from the moment of his extradition to the territory of the Russian Federation or from the moment of his detention on the territory of the Russian Federation," the court reported.

According to Kremlin media, Grozev is accused of organising the escape abroad of Roman Dobrohotov, the Insider editor-in-chief.

In December of last year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia declared Grozev a federal wanted man.

Christo Grozev is a journalist and head of the Bellingcat project, specialising in fact-checking and open-source intelligence. Bellingcat's journalists have repeatedly published investigations into the war crimes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the Navalny case and the murder of Boris Nemtsov, the Wagner Group, etc.

On 25 February 2022, Bellingcat was placed on the list of "undesirables" in Russia, and in July, the Russian FSB accused Grozev of helping Ukrainian intelligence, which allegedly planned to hijack a Russian military plane.

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