German government must call for a comprehensive investigation of the incident – Victim met Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger

After the brutal attack on one of the most prominent Russian human rights activists the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has called urgently on the human rights commissioner of the German government, Günter Nooke, to call for a comprehensive investigation of the crime. "Please show your support for the brave defenders of human rights, who have to risk their health and lives for their commitment”, says the letter of the GfbV.

The head of the organisation "For Human Rights”, Lev Ponomaryov, was severely beaten in the course of Wednesday night and had to be admitted to hospital with broken ribs. He had met the former German minister of justice and leader of the Bavarian Liberal Party, FDP, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, for a discussion of the human rights situation in Russia.

His daughter, the lawyer Elena Lipzer, sees a direct connection between the attack and the human rights work of her father. Apart from his mobile telephone nothing was stolen from him. It was only in December that Ponomaryov had expressed the fear that he was being followed and spied on.