Moldovan-born Russian journalist Natalia Morari could appeal to international courts against Russia

The journalist of the Russian publication The New Times, Natalia Morari, who is native of Moldova, does not rule out the possibility of appealing to international courts against Russia over the ban to enter this state imposed on her. At the meeting of the Press Club on January 25, she said that if the Federal Security Service (FSB) banned her from entering Russia only owing to the journalist materials and investigations she carried out, the international treaties that Russia signed were violated and she can appeal to international courts. She also said that she is preparing all the necessary documents to appeal to the court, but her lawyer does not want to sue FSB only on the basis of the document received from the Russian Embassy in Moldova. The FSB must soon give an answer to the lawyer’s application and the lawsuit could be filed afterwards, she said. Natalia Morari was detained on the night from December 16, 2007 at Domodedovo airport in Moscow. She was returning from a trip to Israel. The FSB officers informed her that she was banned from entering Russia. According to the journalist and to the editorial office where she works, such a decision was made after she published information critical of the Kremlin. Later, in an answer to an official application to the Russian Embassy in Chisinau, she was notified that she was forbidden from entering Russia under an article of the law on the entry into and exit out of Russia, which says that “the entry of a foreign citizen into Russia is banned if this action is needed in order to ensure the defence or security of the state or to ensure public order and to protect the population’s health.” Natalia Morari was born in Hancesti and graduated from the lyceum Gaudeamus in Chisinau. She studied at the State University in Moscow and has worked for The New Times for almost a year.