Description of the situation:
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the judicial harassment faced by Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Head of the human rights organisation Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS)[1], as chief editor and co-author of the 1,200-page book titled International Tribunal for Chechnya. Legal Perspectives of bringing the responsible to individual criminal accountability for the crimes against humanity perpetrated in the course of the armed conflict in Chechnya, published in 2009.
According to the information received, on January 11, 2013, Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky was summoned to the court of Dzerzhinsk, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. During the hearing, Ms. Larisa Teslenko and Ms. Irina Zhiganova, the two authors of a document of linguistic research which formed the basis of the Prosecutor’s claim, were questioned (see background information). Several inaccuracies emerged from their statements, as they were neither able to mention their sources, nor to explain why they used some phrases instead of others in their document. The court also considered a number of applications and called as a witness lawyer Karina Moskalenko, who reviewed the monograph in view of her attendance at the next hearing scheduled for January 23, 2013.
This trial is taking place in the framework of a case opened against Mr. Dmitrievsky after the Prosecutor’s Office of Dzerzhinsk filed a petition under Article 13 of the Federal Law on Countering Extremism to recognise the book titled International Tribunal for Chechnya as an extremist publication and to ban it as a result. The monograph consolidates all available information about human rights violations committed in the Chechen conflict by all conflicting parties. It focuses on the issue of supposed responsibility of the military and executive leadership of the Russian Federation, including President Vladimir Putin, and contains prospects for combating impunity of the perpetrators in the light of international criminal law, including the case law of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It also aims at the establishment of a criminal court for this conflict, on the grounds that the crimes perpetrated in Chechnya would fall within the scope of universal jurisdiction.
Background information:
On November 28, 2012, Mr. Dmitrievsky had been summoned to the local police department of Nizhny Novgorod where he was given a summon to appear in court in Dzerzhinsk on December 6, 2012. As the Prosecutor’s claim was not enclosed with the summon, Mr. Dmitrievsky did not know which parts of the book were considered by the Prosecutor’s Office as extremist. Moreover, Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky was not notified about a preliminary hearing which had already taken place previously.
During the December-6 hearing, Mr. Dmitrievsky’s lawyer filed a request to hold a preliminary retrial, which was turned down by Judge Olga Khaydukova, on the grounds that Mr. Dmitrievsky’s procedural rights would be restored later in the course of the trial. Both decisions clearly amount to a significant infringement of Mr. Dmitrievsky’s procedural rights. Moreover, the judge made a decision to recognise Ms. Oksana Chelysheva, board member of the Finnish-Russian Citizens’ Forum, and Mr. Usam Baysaev, a staff person of the Memorial Human Rights Center, responsible parties at the trial as co-authors of the book. In addition, in the course of the December-6 hearing, the court rejected the application for admission of Novaya Gazeta as a party to the trial, on the grounds that the rights of the newspaper were not at stake in that case. The court however accepted the admission of Mr. Igor Kalyapin, Chairman of the Committee Against Torture, as a party to the trial, as in July 2009, several copies of the book had been illegally seized from him. A new application for admission of Novaya Gazeta was rejected again at the January-11 hearing.
On December 18, 2012, another hearing took place where it emerged that the Prosecutor had not read the book in question. The representative of the Ministry of Justice even recognised that he had not read the book either.
The ongoing court case has been the result of a pre-investigation inquiry initiated by the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor’s Office of Moscow Khamovniki district and carried out in spring 2011. The inquiry was based upon conclusions of some experts. However, Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky has never seen the alleged text of the expertise.
Moreover, this is the second attempt by Russian authorities to ban the book. When the 1,200-page monograph was published in 2009 with a print-run of 700 copies and made available to a broader audience on the website of Novaya Gazeta newspaper as well as on the web portal Caucasian Knot, Moscow investigators conducted a criminal inquiry into the alleged presence of extremism in the book, but did not find sufficient grounds to open a criminal case.
The Observatory strongly condemns the acts of judicial harassment and the infringement of the procedural rights of Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, which take place in the context of the long string of government abuse of anti-extremism laws against civil society activists, including human rights defenders, and urges the Russian authorities to put an immediate end to any act of harassment against him as well as to ensure in all circumstances that human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals.
Actions requested:
Please write to the authorities of Russian Federation, urging them to:
i. Put an end to any act of harassment, including judicial harassment, against Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky and all human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, and ensure in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals;
ii. Comply with the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, especially:
– its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”,
– its Article 6 (b) and (c), which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others [...] as provided for in human rights and other applicable international instruments, freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms and [...] to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention t o th ose matters”,
– and Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
iii. Comply with the provisions of the Declaration of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the protection of human rights defenders and the promotion of their activities, and in particular With Article 2.i), in which the Committee calls on member States to “create an environment conducive to the work of human rights defenders, enabling individuals, groups and associations to freely carry out activities, on a legal basis, consistent with international standards, to promote and strive for the protection of human rights and fundamenta l fr eedoms without any restrictions other than those authorised by the European Convention on Human Rights;
iv. More generally, ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Russian Federation.
Addresses:
· Mr. Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, Ilinka Str, 23, Moscow, 103132, Moscow, Russian Federation, Faxes: + 7 495 606 5173 / 630 2408
· Mr. Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister of the Interior, Ulitsa Zhitnaya, 16, 117049 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Rossiia, 117049, Moskva, Fax: + 7 495 637 49 25
· Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl, 32/34, 121200 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Fax: + 7 495 644 2203
· Mr. Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, Tel: +7 495 607-19-22 / 607-34-67, E-mail: press-sl@ropnet.ru
· Mr. Mikhail Fedotov, Head of the Council under the President for development of civil society and human rights, Tel: +7 495 606-41-84,Fax: +7 495 606-48-55; E-mail: president-sovet@mail.ru; fedotov_MA@gov.ru
· Mr. Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigations Committee of the Russian Federation, Building 28, house 15, Naberezhnaya Akademika Tupoleva, Moscow, 105005, Russia, Tel: + 7 495 640 10 48
· H.E. Mr. Alexey Borodavkin, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 15, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 734 40 44, E-mail: mission.russian@vtxnet.ch
· Ambassador Mr. Alexandra Romanov, Embassy of the Russian Federation in Brussels, 66, avenue de Fre, Brussels, 1180 Brussels, Belgium. Fax: +32 2 374 26 13. E-mail: amrusbel@skynet.be
· Ambassador Mr. Alexander Alekseev, Permanent Representation of the Russian Federation to the Council of Europe, 75, allee de la Robertsau, 67000 Strasbourg, Fax: (+33) (0) 3 88 24 19 74, representationpermderussie@wanadoo.fr
Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of the Russian Federation in your respective country.