The editor-in-chief of an opposition-minded Russian magazine could face up to 15 days in prison on charges of disobeying orders to present her license and registration following a routine traffic stop.
The defendant, Yevgenia Albats of The New Times, told radio station Ekho Moskvy that she is to appear in court on Dec. 30.
Albats was quoted as saying that she had fully complied with police orders when a road patrol "yanked [her] out" of traffic. Police declined to tell her why she got pulled over, instead yelling at her "in an absolutely boorish manner," she told Ekho Moskvy.
An unidentified police official told TASS that the journalist refused to present the documents for her car.
State-controlled television channel NTV claimed that Albats refused to pull over, forcing the police to chase her down, and that the journalist "made a scandal" when the policemen demanded to see her paperwork.
The video accompanying NTV's report only showed Albats filling out a form handed to her by a police officer.
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