Russia intelligence agency sues paper over torture reports

MOSCOW – Russia’s main intelligence agency is suing a major independent newspaper for defamation over reports of torture in a Russian city.

Court filings show that a Moscow court on Tuesday accepted the FSB’s lawsuit against Novaya Gazeta over two articles published earlier this year. Novaya Gazeta interviewed rights activists and the wife of a man who was reportedly tortured soon after a deadly explosion in an apartment building in the city of Magnitogorsk in the Ural mountains on New Year’s Eve.

Officials blamed the explosion on a gas leak, but several media reports suggested that it may have been a targeted bombing.

Novaya Gazeta reported in January that a Kyrgyz man was detained and tortured by FSB officers who allegedly wanted him to plead guilty to arranging the bombing.