human rights defender

Aleksander Dorogov

Actions and Campaigns

Organization affiliation

  • Rosderzhava

HRD's year of birth

1976

HRD's Gender

Man

Type of HRD

  • Journalist/Blogger

HRD's thematic area of engagement

  • Fight against corruption

HRD's geographical origin

Semi urban

Current Status

In prison (sentenced)

HRD's bio and work

Alexander Dorogov is a blogger and journalist for the online media outlet ‘Rosderzhava’. He has five children, including three minors.

Together with Jan Katelewski, he published his materials criticising the authorities and journalistic investigations of corruption, criminality and police misconduct.

The last published investigation by journalists was devoted to the raiding of the funeral business in the Moscow region and the possible covering up of this by the Moscow region police. In 2018, the bloggers demanded that expired products be removed from sale in a shop; as a result, they were taken to a Moscow police station and Dorogov's arm was injured after an altercation with the head of the department.

The bulk of the accusations are related to the figure of Gorokhov, a traffic police inspector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Moscow region. Since 2019, he and his fellow officers have become regular heroes of Dorogov's and Katelevsky's videos. Over time, Gorokhov attracted the attention of fellow bloggers from the Dvizhenie channel. In particular, Gorokhov was found to own real estate, clearly not corresponding to the level of his salary and built in violation of land laws. These accusations were partly confirmed by the results of an internal inspection in the traffic police department.

Detained since

Sep 29, 2020

Charge(s)

  • Other

Sentence

10 years and 6 months

Geolocation of detention

Country or area of detention

Region of detention

  • Europe: Eastern Europe

Location of detention - City/Town

Morshansk

Location of detention - Facility

FKU IK-5 UFSIN of Russia for the Tambov Region 39 Surikova Street Morshansk, Tambov Region, 393950 Russia

Allegations / reports of ill-treatment

Alexander Dorogov suffered spinal and abdominal injuries as a result of the arrest. In his letter, the journalist said that he had been beaten up by his cellmates in the Egoryevsk pre-trial detention centre. Before the fight started, the instigators allegedly made references to the people mentioned in Dorogov's exposés. According to his lawyer, who saw him a week after the beating, Dorogov's ribs were bruised, his ear was torn off, his leg and forearm were injured and his T-shirt was stained with blood. https://www.svoboda.org/a/30814414.html

Any other relevant documents

Russian journalists imprisoned, beaten during arrests and detention https://cpj.org/2020/08/russian-journalists-imprisoned-beaten-during-arrests-and-detention/

Memorial: Moscow region bloggers Aleksandr Dorogov and Yan Katelevsky are political prisoners https://memohrc.org/en/news_old/memorial-moscow-region-bloggers-aleksandr-dorogov-and-yan-katelevsky-are-political