Film-makers opposing "Russian tale“
At the opening ceremony of the film festival the Lithuanian and Finnish film-makers who have been dealing with Chechen issues for years, as well as Russian HR defenders expressed their solidarity with the jailed Khadijat and Malik Gataevs.  

Some of them told they personally knew the couple and had been in touch with orphanages they kept for Chechen children both in Groznyy, the Chechen Republic and in Kaunas, Lithuania. Finnish film-maker Pirjo Honkasalo told that when Gataevs were arrested by Lithuanian security police in autumn 2008 she called Kaunas immediately.  

"There were a lot of crying children in the house, they were shocked. For many of them it was a repetition of trauma they had experienced in the Chechen Republic when security police came to arrest their mother and father and they never could hear anything more about them," – Ms Honkosalo told.  

The star of the festival, a Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismäki is quoted in the press-release of the festival as saying: "Because we have no other weapon than cinema, we will use it to demand justice for the Gataevs." 

At the press-conference on 1 August in Vilnius he stressed he „did not come here to blame Lithuania as a society“. Yet, he expressed his belief there must have been „a tale of Russian FSB (Federal Security Service, successor of KGB – author) in this case“. 

"It’s quite clear that Lithuanian secret police and the FSB are maybe not brothers but they are cousins”, – Mr Kaurismäki argued to humanrightshouse.org. He also noted he hoped that the Court of Appeal of Lithuania would allow them to stay in Lithuania after their release on 14 August (the Gataevs were sentenced in June 2009, but by that time they had spent most of their 10-month term in custody – author). 

Test for Lithuanian judiciary’s independence
Festival participants presumed sending the Gataevs back to the Russian Federation would mean sending them "to Auschwitz."  The opinion was supported by the Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala, who is also Finnish.

"This case is a test for independence of courts in Lithuania, – she told in an interview for the humanrightshouse.org. – I hope that even refugees such as a couple Gataevs will get justice in this country.

Russian Federation and the Chechen administration are asking for extradition of Chechen refugees to explain that the Chechen Republic is a "peaceful region" and Russian Federation is of course a “safe” country. Now I have a reason to believe that Gataevs would face a very tragic destiny there. No European country should send people back to the Russian Federation or to the Chechen Republic under these conditions. The risk that they would face very inhuman treatment is big and real,” – MEP Heidi Hautala told our website. She said the problems of HR defenders in the Russian Federation “are still very grave and maybe even deteriorating”. 

In spite of this, the authorities of Lithuania “have changed their attitude towards asylum-seekers from Chechnya”, said Oksana Chelysheva, originally a Russian journalist who is a Deputy Chairperson of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, an NGO banned in the Russian Federation.

Charges against Chechens “politically motivated” 
Ms Chelysheva left Finland where she recently lived and worked and spent some time in Lithuania to get into the issue of Gataevs.  

“I am sure this case is politically motivated. It is not a coincidence that it was initiated by the secret police service (Department of State Security of Lithuania – author) and the original charges were very serious – trafficking, attempted murder and racket. The investigation failed to proof any of these charges. Still, the Gataevs were found guilty of “family despotism”. I believe it was done just for saving the honour of the Lithuanian security service." 

Ms Chelysheva said she “could only guess what could have stood behind the political decision to crush people who had saved more than a hundred children’s lives.” She recognized Mrs Gataeva, whom she called a friend, “is hardly an angel, but she is a human-being of a kind which is difficult to find in this world.” 

Chelysheva linked the case to the Kremlin interests abroad. “Lithuania cannot be an exception”, – she told in an interview for humanrightshouse.org. – “Kremlin agents are active and feel comfortable in many countries. Just recall threatening letters sent by the agents of Kadyrov (pro-Kremlin Chechen president – auth.) to Chechen refugees who do not want to get back to “peaceful” the Chechen Republic, which actually rather resembles a concentration camp.” 

At the opening ceremony of the festival, Ms Chelysheva declared she “does not believe in coincidences anymore” since the time last autumn when the Gataevs were arrested in Kaunas and almost “the same day their son was abducted in Groznyy.“  

"And again, on the day when we were here in Vilnius talking with a lawyer of Gataevs who told us Lithuanian authorities now tend to believe the claims (of Moscow – author) that security is established in the Chechen Republic – at the same very moment I‘ve got a text message that Natasha Estemirova is also abducted in Groznyy,“ – Ms Chelysheva shared at the press-conference in Lithuanian Forum Palace Vingis cinema, which hosts the festival organized by Sputnik Oy and Ma No Films companies.  

Running-up to the final decision 
The festival Cinema Against Lies is about to take a week. A dozen of films are in the programme, some of them covering the topic of war in the Chechen Republic (like "The 3 Rooms of Melancholia“ by Pirjo Honkosalo, "Barzakh“ by Mantas Kvedaravičius, Lithuania, "Disbelief“ by Andrei Nekrasov, the Russian Federation, etc.). 

The Court of Appeal of Lithuania is expected to deliver judgement considering the extradition of Khadijat and Malik Gataevs on 25 August.

Malik Gataev, born 1966, and his wife Khadijat, born 1964, were arrested in their orphanage near Kaunas on 14 October 2008 on charge that they had extorted money from the orphans (case 1-174-456/08). All the hearings in the case were held behind the closed doors, allegedly to protect the family privacy. Friends of the Gataevs who witnessed in their favour faced searches and detentions.

According to information provided by the Lithuanian institutions to the media (in Lithuanian only, translation below), they were charged with fraud, threatening some of their inmates with murder and racketeering them. Most of the charges were not supported with any proof during the trial.  

On 4 June 2009 the Gataevs were proclaimed guilty in family despotism, extorting money and minor bodily harm. They were sentenced to serve 10-month term in prison, 8 months having been already served. The balsas.lt quoted unnamed Lithuanian officials as saying that „the Gataevs used to suppress and racketeer the Chechen orphans in their custody.  

"They say that the orphanage was organized in a way closer to medieval customs rather than the law of Lithuania (EU member state – author). The orphans used to be punished severely for any disobedience. For the goals of intimidation, other children were exposed to the scenes of executions. 

"The investigation progressed a lot when one of the teenage Chechen girls Seda I. told the officials about unbearable conditions of living and domestic violence.” 

Other sources claim Seda I. to be a collaborator of Lithuanian state security who repeatedly provoked her caretakers to quarrel and recorded the conflict. According to Kavkazcenter.com, Gataevs began to resque orphans during the first Russian-Chechen war (1994-1996). Then their first orphanage was set up in neighbouring Ingushetia. 

The spouses became widely known due to a book by Åsne Seierstad, The Angel of Grozny, as well as due to Finnish documentary "The 3 Days of Melancholia".

More about the festival:

CINEMA AGAINST LIES, – The Support Festival for Khadijat and Malik Gataev