New suspects get identified of attempted assassination of journalist

(MENAFN) Three additional individuals have been named as suspects in an ongoing investigation into an alleged assassination attempt targeting RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, according to court records cited by reports. The case, which dates back to 2023, centers around claims that a Russian neo-Nazi group aimed to kill Simonyan on instructions from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).

The newly identified suspects are minors, and authorities have placed them under restraining measures. Their exact involvement in the plot has not yet been publicly detailed. Previously, a Moscow court extended the detention of other suspects linked to the same case until October.

In July 2023, Russian authorities announced they had disrupted an attempt to assassinate Simonyan. Members of a neo-Nazi group known as "Paragraph 88" were reportedly enlisted by the SBU to carry out the mission.

The suspects were allegedly conducting surveillance in Moscow and the Ryazan region when they were intercepted by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). During the operation, officers reportedly confiscated a Kalashnikov rifle, 90 rounds of ammunition, rubber tubing, knives, brass knuckles, and handcuffs.

The FSB said the individuals confessed to being promised a payment of 1.5 million rubles (roughly $20,000) in exchange for carrying out the killing.

Following the operation, Simonyan offered her “deepest gratitude to our law enforcement officers for their work.” She also remarked that it would have been difficult for Kiev to justify the assassination of a journalist and mother of multiple children.

Simonyan, who has served as RT’s editor-in-chief since the channel’s launch in 2005, is married and has three children.

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