MOSCOW, June 11 (RAPSI) – A drug trafficking case against Ivan Golunov, a journalist from Meduza news website, on Tuesday was dropped because of a lack of evidence that he participated in the crime, Russia’s Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev told journalists.

The journalist will be released from house arrest today, he said.

According to the minister, records of the internal investigation were forwarded from the Interior Ministry’s internal affairs department to the Investigative Committee to assess the legality of actions of police officers, who arrested Golunov. Unless the check is finished, they are suspended from their posts, Kolokoltsev stated.

Golunov was arrested in Moscow on June 6. On June 8, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow placed him under house arrest for 2 months. According to the Interior Ministry’s official statement, police seized nearly 4 grams of methylmethedrone from Golunov.

The journalist pleaded not guilty, insisted that the drugs were planted on him during the arrest and claimed that his prosecution is related to his journalistic investigations.

According to his defense, an examination showed no drugs in his biomaterial.