The prosecutor's office of Nizhny Novgorod Region is going to accuse the editor of the “Pravosaschita” newspaperOn 1 September 2005 the managing director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and the editor-in-chief of the “Pravozaschita” newspaper Stanislav Dmitrievsky received summons from the prosecutor's office of Nizhny Novgorod Region to a senior investigator Oleg Kirukov who is going to prefer official charges against Dmitirevsky of committing the crime part 1of the Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation refers to (inciting to hatred). Dmitrievsky is to be interrogated as an accused. The charges are to be preferred at 11 am tomorrow. The investigation is being carried by the department on the most serious crimes.
Dmitrievsly commented on the fact of being summoned to the prosecutor's office, “The accusations are stupid in their form and content. As for their essence, they are 100 % politically biased. However, from the point of view of the authorities and logic, they have been anticipated. These lickspittles from the prosecutor's office are ready to become objects of general derision in their toadying and excessive zeal to shut up all those who are criticize the policy run by the present Russian authorities. They are accusing me, a Russian person, who has been involved into scientific research into the Russian culture and preservation of monuments of the Russian architecture, of inciting hatred against the Russian people. It's very much alike an attempt to accuse the Roman Pope of inciting hatred to Catholics. At the same time all the stands in the central square of the city are full of anti-Semitic literature and the prosecutor's office didn't find any reprehensible in the calls of the “Moskovsky Komsomolets in Nizhny” newspaper to deport all the Chechens to the far North”.
“It's still a mystery where they have detected signs of “inciting to ethnic hatred” as there is no “language of hospitality” in these appeals and their pathos is aimed at accusing the political leadership of the country. Thus, the case commenced against the newspaper is a typical example of illegitimate applying Article 282”, state the experts at Moscow-based informational-analytical center “SOVA” (.), that concentrates its activities on research into nationalism and xenophobia in the Russian society.
The RCIA reported before that on 11 January 2005 the prosecutor's office of Nizhny Novgorod region commenced a criminal case against publication in the “Pravozaschita” newspaper appeals made by the president of the unrecognized Chechen republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov to the European parliament and his foreign envoy Akhmed Zakaev to the Russian people. These people call to the peaceful reconciliation of the Russian-Chechen armed conflict, express their opinions about its causes and reasons. “Pravozaschita” newspaper is a joint project of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights. The case was commenced pursuant to part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “public calls to extremist activities through mass media outlets” and the investigation was carried by the FSB as this article is under their jurisdiction. Then the FSB changed the article of the preferred accusations to Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“public calls to inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred”) and returned the case to its “authors” to the prosecutor's office of Nizhny Novgorod region. On 11 August Dmitrievsky was interrogated as a suspect in this case.
On 26 August 2005, Nizhegorodsky regional tax authority (a city of Nizhny Novgorod branch of Russia's Federal Tax Inspectorate (FTE) began forcefully withdrawing funds from operational bank accounts of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS). The action resulted from the tax authority's decision pursuant to Article 46 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation - to fine the human rights organization for an alleged failure to pay tax on the international grants they had received from foreign donors. The total sum to be written off their accounts is 844 227 rubles. It started with no respect to the fact that the RCFS had appealed the decision of the tax authorities to the arbitrage court.
Yesterday well-known Moscow human rights advocates including Sergey Kovalyov and Ludmila Alekseeva signed “Open Letter on RCFS Persecution” in which they expressed their deep concern about the attempts to destroy the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
(The text was not edited by Prague Watchdog).
Source: Russian-Chechen Information Agency (B) |
