New information
RUS 003 / 0113 / OBS 008.1
End of judicial harassment
Russian Federation
July 5, 2013
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 in the following situation in the Russian Federation.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the end of the judicial harassment faced by Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Head of the human rights organisation Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) [1], Mr. Ousam Baysaev, a staff person of the Memorial Human Rights Center, and Ms. Oksana Chelysheva, board member of the Finnish-Russian Citizens’ Forum, as co-authors 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 July 2, 2013, Judge Olga Khaydukova of Dzerzhinsk Town Court of Nizhny Novgorod Region rejected the lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Nizhny Novgorod Region to ban the above-mentioned book, refusing to recognise the two-volume legal study as extremist.
The Judge based her decision upon the conclusions of the new experts’ evaluation of the book accomplished by two specialists from the ”Applied Linguistics Laboratory”, in Moscow, which was carried out following the last hearing, on February 8, 2013, when the Judge accepted the request by the defence for a new and independent expertise, the Prosecutor referring to the expertise carried out by specialists of the Volga District Centre of Judicial Examination on December 30, 2009 as a ground to its demand to ban the book as extremist (See background information).
The new expertise, carried out by Andrey Smirnov and Gelena Mazhnik, came to the conclusion that the book was a scientific research into international criminal law, and that it did not contain any authors’ personal remarks that would have any intention to express negative or violent attitudes towards any national, ethnic or social groups or superiority of one of the mentioned groups over another. The experts made a special reference to the quotes from nationalistic webpages that the authors of the book used as samples of the propaganda developed via media channels backed by the authorities aimed at inciting to violence against particular national groups. The experts emphasized that the authors of the book clearly condemned such practices and used them as illustration of ethnic animosity. The experts then concluded that the book under their analysis “was an example of a scientific work of anti-extremist rather than extremist character”.
The Observatory welcomes the Judge’s decision to reject the lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Nizhny Novgorod Region to ban the above-mentioned book, particularly at a time when the judiciary is very often used in the Russian Federation to stifle dissenting voices in the country. The Observatory thanks all the persons, institutions and organisations who intervened in favour of Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Mr. Ousam Baysaev and Ms. Oksana Chelysheva, but remains concerned by the recurrent use of judicial harassment against human rights defenders and NGOs in the Russian Federation, which merely aims at sanctioning their human rights activities, and calls upon the Russian authorities to put an immediate end to this practice.
Background information:
The trial was taking place in the framework of a case opened against Mr. Stanislav 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.
On November 28, 2012, Mr. Stanislav Dmitrievsky was summoned to the local police department of Nizhny Novgorod where he was given a summons to appear in court in Dzerzhinsk on December 6, 2012. As the Prosecutor’s claim was not enclosed with the summons, Mr. Dmitrievsky did not know which parts of the book were considered by the Prosecutor’s Office as extremist. Moreover, Mr. Dmitrievsky was not notified about a preliminary hearing that 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 and Mr. Usam Baysaev 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.
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. 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.
This was 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.
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 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 to those 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 Resolution of the UN Human Rights Council A/HRC/22/L.13 on protecting human rights defenders, adopted on March 15, 2013, which “urges States to create a safe and enabling environment in which human rights defenders can operate free from hindrance and insecurity, in the whole country and in all sectors of society, including by extending support to local human rights defenders”;
iv. 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 fundamental freedoms without any restrictions other than those authorised by the European Convention on Human Rights;
v. 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. Yurii Ya. Chaika, Prosecutor General, 15 A, Bolshaia Dmitrovka 125993 Moscow, Russian Federation, Fax: +7 495 692 17 25, Email: prgenproc@gov.ru
· Mr. Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister of the Interior, Ulitsa Zhitnaya, 16, 117049 Moscow, Russian Federation, Fax: + 7 495 637 49 25
· Mr. Alexander Konovalov, Minister of Justice, 14, ul. Zhitnaya, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation. Fax: +7 495 955 59 99. Electronic appeals via website: http://minjust.ru/electronic-appeal/email
· Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl, 32/34, 121200 Moscow, Russian Federation, 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
· 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. France. 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.