Russian NGO needs international help

On January 23 the Supreme Court in the Russian Federation will decide on the fate of human rights organisation Russian-Chechen Friendhip Society. It will be the last domestic remedy that the organization has at its disposal to ensure that the court ruling on liquidation will be returned to the new consideration at the court of the first instance. The International Helsinki Federation and the Human Rights House Foundation supports the NGO´s call for help. (09-JAN-07)

Text by HRH F/ Nina Luhr based on the Norwegian Helsinki Committee´s information.

In December a Finnish Green Party MP and former European Parliament deputy, Heidi Hautala, became a member of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. She said:
   – It´s a highly symbolic but practical way of expressing concern about the difficult situation for the organization in the hands of the authorities and court system. I also hope that a lot more members of European parliaments will take the same decision. Together we can convince our governments about the urgent need to show the Russian Federation that what it above all now needs is a free civil society. I thus apply for supporting membership in NN RCFS.

Russian-Chechen Friendhip Society’s appeal for SupportMembers

The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society is now calling on politicians and public people of the European countries to follow Heidi Hautala and support the organisation with that specific act of solidarity.

This picture was taken in October 2005 during a rally held to express support and solidarity with the Russian-Chechen Friendhip Society.

The charges preferred against the RCFS have been recognized as politicized by such prominent
international human right groups as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, OMCT-FIDH,
Frontline Defenders Foundation.

Stanislaw Dmitrievskiy, the executive manager of the organization and the chief editor of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency, was given a two year suspended sentence with four-year probation term in spite of the involvement of international organizations, expression of the solidarity from outstanding Russia-based human rights groups and campaigns of support launched by international organizations. The court trial was a complete farce as the judge ignored testimonies of the witness of the defense, including the one made by a prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was murdered on 7 October 2006.

On 19 October 2006 the Permanent Council of the European Union made a public statement on
the murder of the Anna Politkovskaya in which they reiterated its concern about the harassment
of the human rights defense NGO, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, with which Anna
Politkovskaya closely cooperated, and its closure by court order just a week after her
assassination. The EU demanded from the Russian authorities that the closure order should be
reviewed as a matter of urgency.