CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Continuing Persecution of the “Russian-Chechen Friendship Society”

Its Partner Organisation “Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society” Closed Down by Authorities

Vienna, 10 June 2005. The campaign of harassment and prosecution against Russian human rights NGOs dealing with Chechnya-issues continues. While the legal harassment against the Nizhny Novgorod-based Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) is still ongoing, the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society (NNHRS), with whom the RCFS jointly publishes the Pravozaschita newspaper, was ordered to halt its activities by the Ministry of Justice on 3 June 2005.

In 2005, a criminal investigation into some articles published in the Pravozaschita newspaper took and continues to take place, as well as checks by the tax authorities and moves by the Ministry of Justice to close down the organizations. This has been accompanied by a negative media coverage of the organizations’ activities in Nizhny Novgorod.

Additionally:
· In March 2005, the co-editor of Pravozaschita, Oksana Chelysheva, faced numerous threatening leaflets in her own neighborhood. The flyers contained slander, insult, and direct threats to Oksana Chelysheva in connection with her work at RCFS.
· In the night of 4 April 2005, unknown individuals robbed and also tried to set fire to a newspaper kiosk in Argun (Chechnya) belonging to RCSF correspondent Petimat Tokaeva.
· Since 22 April 2005, the “Volgatelecom” telephone company has been refusing to install telephone line in the new office of the Information Center at the RCFS that it rents together with NNHRS under far-fetched pretexts.
· On 3 June 2005, the accountant of the RCFS, Natalia Chernelevskaya, was called to the chief manager of the tax inspection of Nizhegorodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod who threatened her with imprisonment, making hints about the Khodorkovsky-case and reminding her about her little child. Then he made an attempt to persuade her to quit the job at the RCFS offering a better-paid job at their office.

Since 2000, there have been a number of cases of “disappearances,” extrajudicial executions, and torture and ill-treatment of members and activists of the RCFS in the North Caucasus. The most recent was the killing of Aslan Davletukaev in January 2004.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights condemns the targeting of human rights organizations’ activities as well as the individuals employed by them. We believe that the legal and bureaucratic pressure to which the Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights, the Russian Chechen Friendship Society, and their joint newspaper Pravozaschita are intentionally implemented by the authorities of the Russian Federation to obstruct and hamper the activities of these organizations. The employees of both organizations are in serious danger.

The legal harassment of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society

On 11 January 2005, a criminal investigation was opened against the RCFS. On 20 January 2005, a group of officers from the Federal Security Service (FSB) burst into the organization’s office, seized documents and computers, and then “invited” the chair of the RCFS, Stas Dimitrievsky, to come to the local FSB office for questioning him. Although at that time the charges had not been formally brought against the RCFS, Dimitrievsky chose to abide the FSB request in order to avoid potential complications. Since then, board and staff members of the RCFS and the NNHRS, both in Nizhny Novgorod and Chechnya have been called in for questioning as witnesses by FSB officials, which was particularly intimidating to the correspondents in Chechnya, and some of them quit their affiliation with the RCFS.

The materials under investigation include an appeal by the late Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov to the European Parliament, published in the April-May 2004 edition of the Pravozaschita newspaper, calling for help in finding a peaceful settlement to the Chechen conflict, and an appeal in the March 2004 edition by Aslan Maskhadov's London-based envoy Akhmed Zakaev to the Russian people not to re-elect President Putin.

Later, the criminal case was reclassified. Instead of referring to article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls to extremist activities) it now refers to article 282 (incitement of ethnic, racial or religious hatred or enmity). Due to that the case was transferred from the FSB to the prosecutor’s office as investigations under this article are under their jurisdiction. According to the investigator, a linguistic expert of the Ministry of Justice came to the conclusion that the texts in the newspaper contain statements that can be charged under article 282. However, he refused to acquaint Dimitrievsky with this conclusion, because “Dimitrievsky has not been charged yet” and thus according to the Code of Criminal Procedure has no right to get access to the statements of another “witness” in the case.

Additionally, the tax authorities conducted off-scheduled controls of the organization throughout 2005.

Parallel to that, on 8 April 2005, a civil court suit to close down the organization was initiated by the Federal Registration Service of the Ministry of Justice. The first hearing took place on 25 April 2005. The suit is based on an audit of the RCFS, where documents were demanded that are not enlisted in the Law on Public Associations, as well as other documents that the Tax Police had taken with them on their visit. The acting head of the department in Nizhny Novgorod, E.V. Istomina, considered this to be a gross violation of the law, and brought a suit to close down the organization referring to article 63 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and article 25 of the Law on the State Registration of Juridical Persons and Individual Entrepeneurs.

The recent refusal of the telephone company to install a cable line for a new office of RCFS because of “unfavorable climate conditions” seriously impedes the activities of the RCFS.

The bank accounts of the RCFS were temporarily frozen by the authorities, and registered letters to the attention of official bodies were lost in the post office.

Closure of the “Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights”

On 3 June 2005, the respected partner-organisation of the RCFS, the Nizhniy Novgorod Human Rights Society (NNHRS) learnt of an official decision to terminate its work. The decision of the Ministry of Justice to suspend the work of the NNHRS is allegedly based on the fact that it did not comply with the requirements to submit documentation of its work within the established deadline for inspection. However, the NNSHR leadership persist that they have observed all their legal obligations in this respect. A few weeks prior to the decision, on 19 April 2005, a court had found that the organization had not violated the administrative code in its correspondence with the registration chamber of the Ministry of Justice.

International Standards. Recommendations

With the persecution of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society the Russian government is in breach of its obligations under Article 12.2 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders(1), which holds 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.

Russian authorities have not only failed to “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection” of human rights defenders, but state officials themselves are the perpetrators.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights recommends to the government of the Russian Federation:
· Stop persecution of human rights defenders involved with the crisis in Chechnya
· Investigate abuses against defenders and prosecute the perpetrators, as demanded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Resolution 1323 (2003)
· Guarantee the security of witnesses and applicants to the European Court of Human Rights
· Grant unrestricted access to Chechnya to independent media and human rights monitors
· Start a meaningful cooperation with the Council of Europe, UN treaty bodies and special mechanisms, including the immediate issuing of an invitation to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders, Hina Jilani
· Renew the mandate of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Assistance Group to Chechnya, with an added emphasis on the monitoring human rights and protection of defenders.

See also:
IHF statement, “FSB Raids the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society”, 20 January 2005
(http://www.ihf-hr.org/documents/doc_summary.php?sec_id=3&d_id=4014)
IHF statement, “”We Fear for the Safety of our Colleagues in the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society … Russian Human Rights Organization Threatened”, 19 March 2005
(http://www.ihf-hr.org/documents/doc_summary.php?sec_id=3&d_id=4032)
IHF/NHC Report, The Silencing of Human Rights Defenders in Chechnya and Ingushetia, September 2004
(http://www.ihf-hr.org/documents/doc_summary.php?sec_id=3&d_id=3965)

For further information:
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
In Vienna: Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director, +43-1-408 88 22 or +43 -676-635 66 12;
Henriette Schroeder, IHF Press Officer, +43-676-725 48 29
In Moscow: Tanya Lokshina, +7 -916-624 19 06
Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Stas Dimitrievsky, Oksana Chelysheva, +7-8312-171 666

Source: IHF

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