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Human rights defenders / Statements / Russian Federation / 2013 / January

Russian Federation: Defend the Defenders Sponsorship : Say no to the judicial harassment against human rights defender Stanislav Dmitrievsky


Please write to any of the authorities below using our template letter.

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken at omct@omct.org, quoting the code of this appeal in your reply. Thank you.

  • 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. Alexandre 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.


Dear President/dear Minister/dear Sir or Your Excellency,

I have 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), as chief editor and co-author of the book entitled 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. 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. During the hearing, several inaccuracies emerged from the statements of the two experts authors of the report which formed the basis of the Prosecutor's claim, Ms. Larisa Teslenko and Ms. Irina Zhiganova, 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.

The monograph focuses on the issue of supposed responsibility of the military and executive leadership of the Russian Federation in the Chechen conflict, 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.

I am concerned about 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,

In this regard, I am writing to urge you 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.

Moreover, I call upon you to 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 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.

More generally, I urge you to 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.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

 

Sincerely,




OMCT Sponsorship project Defend the defenders


Portrait of Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Russian human rights defender judicially harassed







In the framework of its Sponsorship projet Defend the defenders, OMCT releases a portrait of Stanislav Dmitrievsky, prominent Russian human rights defender and Chairman of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS).

Mr. Dmitrievsky, sponsored by Swiss Clown Dimitri, is once again facing judicial harassment.
As the court summons him for co-authoring the book “International Tribunal for Chechnya”[1], it is feared that Stanislav Dmitrievsky will have to face criminal charges if the publication is recognized as “extremist material”.

 

Take action and defend the rights of Stanislav Dmitrievsky. Write to the Russian authorities by using our template letter.


Stanislav Dmitrievsky is sponsored by Swiss clown Dimitri in the framework of the OMCT Project Defend the defenders.

 

Who is Stanislav Dmitrievsky ?

 

Mr. Stanislav is a Russian human rights activist, a writer and an editor. He has devoted his life to actively fight against injustice in Russia and North Caucasus. Former Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pravozaschita (“Human Rights Defense”), he has then been involved in human rights non-profit organisations. He is also involved in the civil society movement against the reportedly unlawful de-listing and demolition of buildings of cultural significance in Russia.

 

He his currently the chairman of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS), a Finland-based NGO.  The mandate of the RCFS is to monitor the human rights respect in North Caucasus and especially Chechnya. In 2004, the International Helsinki Federation has awarded The NGO for its work for Human rights. Regrettably, Mr. Dmitrievsky had to move the originally Russia-based RCFS headquarters to Finland when the Court of Justice of Nizhnii Novgorod shouted down the NGO in 2006.

 

Mr. Dmitrievsky is also a consultant for the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance, directed by Ms. Oksana Chelysheva. This Foundation has taken over the work of the RCFS after its closure in Russia, and is now one of the three organisations composing the reconstituted RCFS in Finland. Their collaboration led to the publication of “International Tribunal for Chechnya”, the book currently subjected to investigation about its alleged “terrorist” content.


                                              

 

The case on “International Tribunal for Chechnya”

 

Co-written by Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Oksana Chelysheva and Usam Baysaev, the prosecuted monograph “International Tribunal for Chechnya” was launched in 2009. The book is, as described by the authors, “the analysis of the crimes committed in the course of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic in the light of the norms of International criminal law, including case developed by the two international Tribunals”.

 

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.

As soon as the book was published, the authorities tried to ban the volume, by conducting criminal inquiries which could not result in a criminal case due to lack of evidence.

 

However, a petition was filed by the Prosecutor’s office of Dzerzhinsk under article 13 of the Federal Law on Countering Extremism and an administrative case incriminating the book was opened in 2011, on the basis of experts’ conclusions about “extremism material”. Following the case opening, Mr. Dmitrievsky was questioned in April 2011, in a pre-investigation verification regarding the book content. Such an administrative procedure does not fully comply with both national and international law.

 

Indeed a preliminary court hearing has been held on an unknown date, without notifying the authors of the book, which is contrary to the Code of administrative offences of The Russian Federation. Indeed, the latter requires that “a judge, body, or official, which tries a case concerning an administrative offence, shall be entitled to regard the presence of the person, who is on trial in this case, while considering it, as obligatory”[2].  Otherwise, if the person involved in the case is not present, “the case may be only tried if there is evidence of the proper notification of this person about the place and time of consideration of his case »[3]. Mr. Dmitrievsky did not receive such notification, and the preliminary hearing was carried in his absence, in breach of the Russian Federation legislation. His lawyer then filed a request to hold a preliminary retrial, which was turned down by the Judge, invoking that “Mr. Dmitrievsky’s procedural rights would be restored later in the course of the trial”.

 

On November 28, 2012, Stanislav Dmitrievsky received an official summons to appear before the court on December 6, 2012. The summons indicates that the hearing is based on encountering extremist activities, as provided by the Russian law on extremist activity but do not specifies which parts of the book are considered as “extremist material”. Nonetheless, the Code of administrative offences states that “a person who is on trial in connection with a case concerning an administrative offence shall be entitled to familiarize themselves with all the materials of the case”[4], which in this case includes the right to be aware of which parts of the volume are incriminated. Moreover, Stanislav Dmitrievsky has never been able to see the experts’ conclusions on which the case is based.

 

Moreover the rights of Mr. Dmitrievsky are being seriously infringed regarding international standards. Indeed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the Russian Federation, guarantees that “in the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees, in full equality: (a) To be informed promptly and in detail […] of the nature and cause of the charge against him;  (b) To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing”[5].  

 

At last, if this administrative procedure ends with the book being recognized as “extremist publication”, Mr. Dmitrievsky could face criminal charges as the article 15 of the Federal Law on combating extremist activity provides that “citizens of the Russian Federation, foreign citizens and stateless persons shall bear criminal, administrative and civil liability for the carrying out of extremist activity under the procedure established in Russian Federation legislation”.

 

Stanislav Dmitrievsky, a human rights defender in constant danger

 

Dmitrievsky has continuously suffered threats from both authorities and unknown attackers for the past years  aimed at sanctioning  his human rights activities. . He has been subjected to various kinds of persecution, such as arbitrary arrests, criminal prosecution, home inspections and police intimidations. Last example of harassment occurred in November 2012, as unknown assailants attacked his apartment, his office and the apartment of his daughter. Men wearing masks spilt orange paint over Stanislav’s office and destroyed the security cameras of his apartment.

 

Nonetheless Stanislav Dmitrievsky courageously continues to stand up for the protection of human rights.


Chronology of previous acts of harassment

     
  • September 2, 2005 : charges under article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code for “action 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 though mass media outlets”
  • September 22, 2005 : summons for questioning in relation to alleged fiscal irregularities
  • February 3, 2006 : Mr. Dmitrievsky was found guilty of “inciting interethnic hatred by using the mass media”, and sentenced to 4 years of probation with 2 years suspended sentence. The authorities closed down the RCFS.
  • March 22, 2007 : threats of arrest for Stanislav and Oksana Chelyheva. The Police was deterred by the announcement of their intention to call on international Human rights organisations. The same day, Dmitrievsky’s mother was visited by a policeman
  • April 8, 2008 : Stanislav was threatened at his home by court officers
  • April 27, 2011 : summons for questioning in relation of his book, by the Anti-Extremism Center
  • March 24, 2012: unknown assailants attacked RCFS office with Molotov cocktails
  • June 18, 2012: sentence of 15 days of administrative detention after a protest
  • July 23, 2012 : arrest for participating in a protest against the demolition of an historical building
  • November 1, 2012 : unknown assailants attacked his apartment
  • November 4, 2012 : unknown assailants attacked RCFS office
  • November 28, 2012 : Stanislav received an official summons to appear before the Court on December 6. A second hearing has been held on January 11th, 2013.

 

Take action : Defend the rights of Stanislav Dmitrievsky

For more information, read the urgent appeal  of the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders, a joint programme of OMCT and FIDH, and write to the authorities of Russian Federation : http://bit.ly/UoaDcG

For more information about the OMCT Sponsorship project Defend the defenders, please visit our website: http://bit.ly/u8puEj

 



[1] “International Tribunal for Chechnya - Prospects of Bringing to Justice Individuals Suspected of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity During the Armed Conflict in the Chechen Republic”, July 2009

[2] Code of administrative offences, Article 25.1, 3)

[3] Code of administrative offences, Article 25.1, 2)

[4] Code of administrative offences, Article 25.1, 1)

[5] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 14.3, a) and b)


Properties

Date: January 17, 2013
Activity: Human Rights Defenders
Type: Statements
Country: Russian Federation
Subjects: Human Rights Defenders

Attachments

  • Template letter_Stanislav D
    2 pages / 126 KB

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