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Pavel Sheremet, head of special programs department on First Channel of Russian state television, has been brought to hospital in Minsk diagnosed with brain injury. A source from his television company told Itar-Tass that the only woman who witnessed the incident claims that two unknown men attacked Sheremet and that he had to fight back. All those involved in fist fighting were detained by police.
Pavel Sheremet told Ekho Moskvi radio that two unknown men attacked him at around 7.00 p.m, Sunday when he came out from his house accompanied by journalist Svetalana Kalinkina. The assaulters shouted that Sheremet was allegedly harassing the young woman. The journalist attempted to bring them to reason, saying it was misunderstanding, but one of the two assaulters dealt a blow. Pavel Sheremet was taken to a police precinct where he was told that he was to blame for the incident,
After several hours in custody Sheremet was suffering from strong headache and was hospitalized. Chief of the Neuro -surgery department of district hospital 9 in Minsk said that the journalist was in satisfactory condition and was undergoing medical examination.
The Russian journalist described the incident as provocation and said that he was summoned to Minsk court on October 20.
Meanwhile, Minsk sources told Itar-Tass that the Russian embassy in Moscow was aware of the incident and would ask the Belarusian Interior Ministry for explanations.
Earlier, Pavel Sheremet had headed the office of the Russian television company in Belarus. In 1997 he spent several months in custody in Belarus, and was finally released at personal request made by Boris Yeltsin. Three years later Dmitry Zavadsky - a cameraman who had worked with Pavel Sheremet, mysteriously disappeared and his fate is unknown.
Pavel Sheremet and Svetlana Kalinkina are co-authors of a book titled The Occasional President in which they strongly criticized the Belarusian authorities and President Alexander Lukashenko.
MOSCOW, October 18 (Itar-Tass)
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