The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in the Russian Federation.
New Information:
According to the information received, on November 15, 2005, Mr. Bill Bowring, a British lawyer and a professor at the University of London, as well as a member of the executive committee of the Bar of England, was refused entry into the Russian Federation by officers of the Federal Security Service on his arrival from Great Britain. Mr. Bill Bowring is also the academic coordinator of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC) in London, an organisation that assists individuals, lawyers and NGOs within the Russian Federation to take human rights cases to the European Court of Human Rights. He was detained during more than four hours in the premises of the international airport Sheremetyevo-2, and was then told that he was denied entry to Russia, without being informed of the reasons for this decision. Mr. Bill Bowring was holding a Russian visa and had letters of accreditation from the Bar of England and Wales and from the Ireland-based Frontline Defenders Foundation. Professor Bowring had already visited Nizhny Novgorod on June 16-18, 2005 when he monitored the situation connected with the harassment campaign launched by the Russian authorities against RCFS (see background information).
On November 16, 2005, the court of Nizhny Novgorod Sovetsky district started to consider the criminal case on charges against Mr. Stanislaw Dmitrievsky, under article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for "inciting hatred or animosity on the basis of ethnicity and religion" (see background information). Several members and staffers of RCFS and NNSHR were summoned as witnesses for the prosecution, according to the bill of indictment. The next hearing was fixed for November 25, 2005.
On the same day, a second trial was scheduled to examine the complaint that was filed by RCFS against the federal tax inspection office in the region of Nizhniy Novgorod who began a series of unauthorised withdrawals from their bank account on August 26, 2005 (see background information). A representative of the tax inspection came and announced that their lawyer had fallen seriously ill. The judge said that the legal body can not fall ill as there are other staffers working there but the young guy turned out not to have the legal right to represent the tax inspection and the judge fixed the next hearing of the case for November 30, 2005. She also told that the she would not take any explanations about sick staffers of the tax inspection for a reasonable excuse.
Moreover, during a hearing on November 14, 2005, the Nizhny Novgorod Region Court refused the suit lodged by the Nizhny Novgorod Main Registration Department at the Ministry of Justice to close down RCFS (see background information).
The Observatory is seriously concerned about this judicial and fiscal harassment targeting the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, and in particular Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, which visibly aims at hindering the activities of the organisation. The Observatory is deeply concerned about the physical and psychological integrity of RCFS members and recalls that they have been continuously victims of threats and acts of harassment.
Background information:
Since the beginning of 2005, RCFS has been subjected to a constant judicial and fiscal harassment:
– On January 11, 2005, the prosecutor’s office of Nizhny Novgorod Region initiated a case against Pravozaschita and Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, as chief editor of the newspaper, following the publication of statements by Messrs. Akhmed Zakaev and Aslan Maskhadov, two Chechen separatist leaders, calling for a peaceful end to the Russian - Chechen conflict.
On September 2, 2005, Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky was officially charged by the prosecutor’s office in relation to this case under part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation referring to "actions aimed at inciting hatred or hostility and at disparagement of either an individual or a group of people according to their gender, race, nationality, background, religious beliefs as well as belonging to any social group that are committed publicly or through mass media outlets". This offence is liable to up to two years imprisonment.
On November 3, 2005, the preliminary hearing in the judicial case against Pravozaschita was held in Sovetsky district court of Nizhny Novgorod, during which the judge refused the appeals of Mr. Dmitrievsky’s lawyers to exclude the evidence collected during the investigation. Indeed, as Mr. Dmitrievsky was a witness to the case, he had no right to defend himself and had no access to the information in the case. The date for the next hearing was set for November 16, 2005.
– Pursuant to an audit carried out by the Main Department at the Federal Registration Service of the Ministry of Justice of Nizhny Novgorod Region, a complaint was lodged by the Ministry against RCFS on April 8, 2005, before the Court of Nizhny Novgorod Region, aiming at closing down the organisation on the basis of the allegation that RCFS had failed to provide some documents to the Ministry. This measure was taken whereas the material required had already been provided to the Tax Inspection office which was then also auditing into the organisation’s accounts. On September 21, 2005, the hearing in the case, before the Nizhny Novgorod Region Court, was postponed to October 26, 2005, upon request of the Ministry of Justice. On that date, the representative of the Ministry claimed to close the organisation down, and asked Judge Samartseva to take this decision immediately. The court hearing was postponed to November 1, 2005 until additional documents were attached to the case. On that date, Judge Samartseva decided to postpone consideration of the suit lodged by the Ministry of Justice for an indefinite period of time, until the case is considered by the Panel of Judges on civil cases at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation due to the request made by RCFS representative in court.
On June 16, 2005, RCFS received an order from the Tax Inspection office in Nizhny Novgorod, pursuant to an audit undertaken by the office. It ordered RCFS to pay 1,000,561 roubles (over 35,000 USD) for non-payment of income tax and fines for the grants received in 2002, 2003 and 2004. It was issued under Article 100 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and referred to grants from the European Commission and the National Endowment for Democracy Foundation arguing these sponsoring organisations have not been included in the list of donors from which subsidies are not taxable. On June 28, 2005, RCFS appealed against this decision.
On August 15, 2005, the RCFS received another order (Resolution n° 25) from the Federal Tax Inspection office that confirmed the order to pay the same amount of taxes and fines. In this order, the deputy chief of tax inspection, Mr. Trifonov, admitted that the European Commission is included in the list of donors from which grants are not taxable. However, he further claimed that RCFS had used this subsidy for "publishing and diffusing publications", an activity that is not included in article 251 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. According to this article, tax free grants must be dedicated to "education, arts, culture and environmental defence fields". RCFS lodged another appeal against this decision on August 24.
On August 26, 2005, the Tax Inspection office ordered a compulsory withdrawal of funds from the RCFS’s bank account, despite the pending appeal filed against Resolution n° 25.
On October 4, 2005, RCFS bank accounts were reopened following the resolution of the Arbitration Court of Nizhny Novgorod Region to suspend the orders to collect profit taxes and fines from RCFS and to freeze its accounts in foreign currency, on September 12, 2005. Nevertheless, on October 14, 2005, RCFS received a letter from the Administration of Federal Tax Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region stating that it had decided not to comply with the request of RCFS calling for the cancellation of the decision of the Tax Inspection of Nizhegorodsky district.
On October 26, 2005, at a hearing at the Arbitration Court of Nizhny Novgorod Region, concerning the appeal of RCFS against Resolution 25, representatives of the Tax Inspection demanded to attach to the case some documents from the Pravozashita case against Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky. The judge of the Arbitration Court informed the sides that she would need time to read all the documents before taking a decision and on September 12, she decided to suspend Resolution 25. Her decision was valid until the next court hearing before the Arbitration Court on November 16, 2005.
In the same time, on September 23, 2005, Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky was summoned for interrogation at the Main Investigatory Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Nizhny Novgorod region and was informed that a new criminal case against RCFS had been initiated for "evading payment of taxes or dues in a big scale" (Article 199, Part I of the Criminal Code) on September 2, 2005, pursuant to the Federal Tax Inspection office’s audit, although their decision had been appealed to the Arbitration Court. On October 6, 2005, Mr. Dmitrievsky was interrogated at the Nizhny Novgorod Region Department of the Ministry of the Interior as a witness to the case.
Action requested:
Please write to the authorities of the Russian Federation urging them to:
i. guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, all RCFS members and all Russian human rights defenders;
ii. put an end to all acts of harassment against the RCFS and all of its members;
iii. conform with the provisions of the Declaration on Humans Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, in particular article 1, which states that "everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels" and article 12.2 which states 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";
iv. more generally, conform with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and with all other international human rights instruments binding the Russian Federation.
Addresses:
· Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of the Russian Federation, Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, Faxes: + 7 095 206 5173 / 230 2408, Email: president@gov.ru
· Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Ustinov, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, 103793 g. Moskva K-31, Ul. B. Dimitrovka, d 15a, Prokuratura Rossiyskoy Federatsii, Generalnomu prokuroru Ustinovu V., Russian Federation, Fax: + 7 095 292 88 48
· Prosecutor of Nizhegorodskaya Oblast Demidov Vladimir Veniaminovich Izhorskaya Street, 25 Nizhny Novgorod 603115 Russian Federation; Fax: +7 8312 61 85 55
· Mr. Triphonov Michail Yurievich, deputy director of the Federal Tax Inspection office in Nizhny Novgorod; Tel: +7 8312 33 22 01
· Chairwoman of the Presidential Human Rights Commission of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya, 103132 g. Moskva, Staraya ploshchad, d 8/5,pod 3, Predsedatele Komissii po pravam cheloveka pri Prezidente, Pamfilove, Elle., Russian Federation, Fax: +7 095 206 4855
· Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev, ul. Zhitnaya, 16, 117049 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Rossiia, 117049, Moskva, Ministru vnutrennykh del, Fax: +7 095 237 4925
· Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl, 32/34, 121200 Moscow, Russian Federation, Telegram: Rossiia, 121200 Moskva, Ministru inostrannykh del, Fax: + 7 095 244 2203
· Ambassador Leonid Skotnikov, Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in Geneva Av. de la Paix 15, CH-1211, Geneva 20, Switzerland, e-mail : mission.russian@ties.itu.int, fax: +4122 734 40 44
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Geneva - Paris, November 18, 2005
Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, an FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
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