All-Russian Nongovernmental Movement “For Human  Rights,” a coalition of Russuan NGOs, has sent an open letter to the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Dmitry Medvedev, to grant pardon to a number of Russian citizens who have fallen victim to politically motivated persecution. The letter reminds Medvedev of his repeated references to the importance for the Russian Federation to follow the principle of the rule of law. Human Rights House Foundation (HRH F) has added its name to the list of signatories. (22-MAY-08)
 
Based on the open letter issued today by the All-Russian Nongovernmental Movement ´For Human Rights,´ this article has been edited and prepared for publication here by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz and Ralph Pluimert. The text of the letter has been left unchanged.

Open letter to the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev

Mr. President,
In the course of your presidential campaign you often talked about how important it is for the Russian Federation to follow the principle of rule of law. Your words drew our close attention, for they correspond to our understanding of priorities. We are convinced that cases of politically motivated criminal persecutions and court decisions are not compatible with the principle of rule of law. This is why we are asking you to do all you can to free the people who in our opinion became victims of politically motivated persecution – by granting them a pardon.

As a first step, we are asking you to grant a pardon to the following Russian citizens:
Igor Sutyagin, sentenced to 15 years (Article 275 of the Criminal Code).
Valentin Danilov, sentenced to 13 years (Article 275 of the Criminal Code).
Igor Reshetin, member of the Academy of Cosmonautics, General Director of TsNIIMash-Export, sentenced to 11.5 years; Sergey Vizir, sentenced to 11 years; Aleksandr Rozhkin, sentenced to 5 years; Mikhail Ivanov, sentenced to 5 years.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to 8 years.
Platon Lebedev, sentenced to 8 years.
Alexei Pichugin, serving a life sentence.
Vasily Aleksanyan, executive vice-president of YUKOS, arrested on April 6, 2006. He was accused of money laundering (Article 174.1, part 4) and embezzlement (Article 160). Aleksanyan, who is seriously ill, is currently held in a hospital under arrest.
Svetlana Bakhmina, deputy chief of the legal department of YUKOS. Arrested on December 7, 2004. Sentenced to 8 years.
Rustem Ilgizovich Shaidullin, born 1987 in the city of Aznakayevo, the Republic of Tatarstan, a third-year student of a professional lyceum in the city of Aznakayevo, who in 2006 was sentenced to 6 years in a general- regime colony – allegedly for a so-called “Islamic Jamaat” case but in fact for a participation in a picnic in the countryside together with young Muslims.
Zara Murtazaliyeva, insurance agent, student of the Pyatigorsk Linguistic Institute. Murtazaliyeva was born in Naursky region of the Chechen Republic in 1983. Arrested in Moscow on March 4, 2004. Sentenced to 8.5 years for alleged intent to carry out a terrorist act.
Zaurbek Talkhigov, born in Shali, Shali region of Chechen-Ingush Republic in 1977. Sentenced to 8.5 years for an attempt to help free hostages at the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow in October 2002.

According to the Russian legislation, the President of the Russian Federation has a right to pardon a prisoner without a demand to admit his guilt. We are familiar with details of the cases of each prisoner listed above and we have serious reasons to believe that prosecution in all of them was politically motivated. This list of Russian political prisoners is far from complete; we chose those who received the harshest sentences and those whose cases received significant public attention. The list is incomplete evidently – other political prisoners, in particular members of  “Another Russia” (14 persons, at the moment) coalition, some businessmen and others are not listed there.

We hope that the pardon procedure will be applied to them as well.
 
Mr. President, by starting your presidential term with granting a pardon to political prisoners, you would open a new page in the history of the Russian Federation. This would restore the trust in fairness and independence of the judicial system that our country desperately needs today.
 
L. M. Alekseyeva, Moscow Helsinki Group
S. A. Gannushkina, Yelena Ryabinina, “Civil Assistance”
S. A. Kovalev, Sakharov Foundation
L. A. Ponomarev, Movement “For Human Rights”
Yu. A. Ryzhov, Academician, Russian Academy of Sciences
Yu. V. Samodurov, Museum and Public Centre named after Andrey Sakharov
A. K. Simonov, Glasnost Defense Foundation
E. I. Cherny, Committee for Protection of Scientists
G. P. Yakunin, Committee for Defence of Freedom of Conscience
 
The Appeal is supported by:
N.Yu. Belykh, political party “Union of Right Forces”
Rudolf Bindig, Honorary Associate of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE); former Co-Rapporteur for the Russian Federation in the PACE;
former Member of Parliament of the German Bundestag (1976 – 2005)
Vaclav Havel, Czech Republic President
Andre Glucksmann, Writer
Vanessa Redgrave
Marina Vassilieva, Senior Project Manager, Ministry of Government and Consumer services, Toronto, Canada
Oksana Chelysheva, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
Stanislaw Dmitrievskiy, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
Alla Gerber, the Holocaust Foundation
Maria Dahle, Executive Director, Human Rights House Foundation
 
The address is open for support at the address news@zaprava.ru
 
All-Russian Nongovernmental Movement “For Human  Rights,”
Room 21, Bldg 1,House 7, M. Kislovsky Pereulok, Moscow, 125009
Tel: +7 (495)291-62-33, Tel/Fax:  +7(495)202-22-24, e-mail: news@zaprava.ru; http://zaprava.ru/