On 29 September Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the executive director of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society and the mane editor of the newspaper Pravo-zashchita , was handed the accusative conclusion of the indictment of inciting interregional and ethic enmity, in accordance with Article 282 Procedural Criminal Code, of the Russian Federation. The maximum punishment provided by this Article is 5 years´ imprisonment. For further details on this story in Russian, click here . (29-SEP-05)
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society is a Nizhniy Novgorod based NGO which, since 2000, has distributed information about the situation concerning the observance of human rights in the Caucasus Region. They help find people who have been kidnapped, defend the interests of war crimes´ victims and help handicapped children who had been hard bit by the Chechen wars.
The Society?s activists try to change the negative stereotype of the Chechen people and criticize a lot the Government for the gross violations of human rights and norms of humanitarian rights in the Chechen Republic, in the articles of their own newspaper ?Pravozashchita?. Members of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society were put under pressure by the Russian authorities who started two criminal cases against the organization and its executive director Stanislav Dmitrievsky.
The criminal case on accusations of indictment of interregional and ethnic enmity
On the 2nd of September Mr. Dmitrievcky was accused under ?Article # 282? of the Criminal Code (incitement of ethnic, radical or religious hatred or enmity). The reason for this accusation is the publications in their newspaper ?Pravozashchita?, published by the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society of two appeals from the Chechen leaders: Akhmed Zakaev (London-based envoy) and Aslan Maskhadov (late Chechen separatist leader, killed by Russian forces in March 2005). After this, on the 3rd of June the Ministry of Justice slowed down the activities of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Read more
On the 2nd of September Stanislav Dmitrievsky was accused of kindling interregional and ethnic enmity, in accordance with Part 1 Article 282 Procedural Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, with his advocate Yuri Sidorov, asked the investigator to give them the materials of his criminal case, so as to become familiar with the documents. The investigator hasn?t yet given them the materials.
On the 27th of September Stanislav Dmitrievsky, with his advocate Yuri Sidorov, gave an application to the investigator of the Prosecutor of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region. In this application Stanislav Dmitrievsky said that he has the right to familiarize himself with the order for the examination of the newspaper articles, bring up his own questions to the linguistic specialist examining the paper and familiarize himself with the conclusions of this investigation, in accordance with ?Clause 2 Part 4 Article 47? of the Procedural Criminal Code, of the Russian Federation.
He has the right to challenge the linguistic specialist; apply for carrying out the examination with another specialized establishment or bring in his own specialists, in accordance with ?Clause 2 – 5 Part 1 Article 198? Procedural Criminal Code, of the Russian Federation.
Stanislav Dmitrievsky contends that the basic principles of the legal procedure – equality of rights – were broken and that he was deprived of his rights to ask questions to the linguistic specialist who only answered questions formulated by the investigator. The conclusions were developed by the linguistic specialist brought by the prosecutor?s investigator, while Stanislav Dmitrievsky was deprived of his own examination. Thus the prosecution was knowingly on favorable ground. According to ?Clause 3 Part 2 Article 75? of the Procedural Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the evidence which was taken, in violation of the Procedural Criminal Code, doesn?t hold any legal validity and can?t be used as the base of the accusation.
The criminal case against the Centre for tax evasion
On the 15th of August the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region announced that it would bring the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society to account for its taxes. The tax inspectorate insists that this non-profit organization, which is supposed to be a tax free organization, should pay tax at the rate of around 1million 1 561 rubles, more than 400 thousand dollars, on the profit from grants received from the period between 2002-2004, given by the European Commission and the National Endowment for Democracy.
On 24th of August 2005 the Arbitration Court of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region appealed the decision of the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Services for blocking the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society?s dollar bank accounts and transferring the money from their ruble (bank) accounts, as illegal, unfounded and determinable. But in spite of the Arbitration Court?s decision, on the 26th of August, the Inspectorate of Federal Tax Services forcibly began withdrawing cash from the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society?s accounts. (http://hro.org/editions/demos/2005/09/16.php#doc5760)
Especially cynical is the arrest of resources which were collected by the journalists and readers of the German journal ?Bild? for the operation of Zareta Suleymanova, a seventeen year old Chechen girl who has been disfigured and has lost an eye during the bombing of her house by a Russian helicopter.
On the 21st of September, at the Nizhniy Novgorod Regional Arbitration Court, a preliminary sitting of the court was held on the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society?s suit against the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Services of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region. In their suit the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society asked the Arbitration Court to reverse the decision of the Inspectorate of Federal Tax Services about brining the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society to account for its taxes, as illegal.
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society is motivated by the fact that the European Commission is on the list of donors, which are released from taxes according to a Russian Government regulation dated on the 24th of December 2002. That is why the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society insists on the fact that the claim of the Inspectorate of Federal Tax Services against their organization to exact the taxes from the European Commission?s grants is unfounded and illegal. The National Endowment for Democracy was also set free from taxes by intergovernmental agreement between the USA and the Russian Federation dated on the 14th of April 1992. According this intergovernmental agreement the claim of the Inspectorate of Federal Tax Services against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society to levy taxes from the National Endowment for Democracy?s grants is also unsubstantiated and unlawful.
But the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Services of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region, as before, insists on punishing the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society at the same amount on the basis of ?Article # 25? of the Tax Code according to which the grants that are not taxable are the grants which are directed to the financing of programs in the field of education, art, culture and environmental preservation. By the opinion of the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Services of the Nizhniy Novgorod Region, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society doesn?t come under the action of this list. The next sitting of Court was fixed for the 25th of October.
Threatening the members of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
On the 9th of September the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society gave a statement to the Prosecutor of Nijniy Novgorod about threats directed against its members. It was the second statement of threats directed against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society?s members. The first statement was stopped because of the impossibility of finding the person who distributed leaflets near the home of Oksana Chelysheva, the editor of the information centre of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, calling for her death. On the 9th of September the same leaflets were seen appealing for the death of Stanislav Dmitrievsky. It can be established that the Prosecutor doesn?t want to get involved and is leaving the members of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society on their own.
The representatives of Russian NGOs are worried about the fate of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. They wrote “The petition of Russian NGOs about the persecution the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society”. They demand that the Russian authorities stop harassing their friends and colleges from the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. They ask everybody to support the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
