Russian Federation: Arbitrary sentence against Mr. Stanislas Dmitrievsky

RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Arbitrary sentence against Mr. Stanislas Dmitrievsky

Paris-Geneva, February 3, 2006 – The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), expresses its deepest concern about the sentence pronounced today against Mr. Stanislas Dmitrievsky, executive manager of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Pravozaschita, a joint publication of RCFS and the Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights (NNSHR).

According to the information received, on February 3, 2006, Mr. Dmitrievsky was condemned to a two-year suspended prison sentence and to a four-year probation period by the Sovetsky District Criminal Court of Nizhny Novgorod. This means that during four years, Mr. Dmitrievsky will face the risk of being arrested at any moment and detained for two years, in the case he would violate the rules linked to the probation period. During this probation period, he will be banned from changing his main place of living and will have to report regularly to the local authorities.

The judge allegedly decided just before the hearing that it would take place in camera, and several observers, including one mandated by the European Union, were at first denied entry to the court. They were finally granted access after long negotiations with the secretary of the Court. In this regard, the Observatory recalls that on November 15, 2005, officers of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) had already denied access to the Russian territory to an observer at the trial of Mr. Dmitrievsky, Mr. Bill Bowring, a British lawyer (see Observatory urgent appeal RUS 003/0805/OBS 069.03, dated November 18, 2005).

The proceedings were first initiated on January 11, 2005 by the prosecutor’s office of Nizhny Novgorod Region against Pravozaschita, following the publication of statements by Messrs. Akhmed Zakaev and Aslan Maskhadov, two Chechen separatist leaders, in which they called for a peaceful end to the Russian - Chechen conflict.

On September 2, 2005, Mr. Dmitrievsky, as editor-in-chief of the publication, was officially charged by the prosecutor’s office for “actions aimed at inciting hatred or hostility and at disparagement of either an individual or a group of people according to their gender, race, nationality, background, religious beliefs as well as belonging to any social group that are committed publicly or through mass media outlets” (article 282.1 of the Penal Code). Nevertheless, on November 16, 2005, the court reconsidered the charges for “inciting hatred or animosity on the basis of ethnicity and religion”(article 282.2 of the Penal Code).

The Observatory recalls that the proceedings against Mr. Stanislas Dmitrievsky are part of a more general campaign of fiscal and judicial harassment against the RCFS, and take place in a context of more general repression of civil society by the Russian authorities (see, amongst others, Observatory press release and explanatory note of the Amendments to some federal laws of the Russian Federation, January 20, 2006).

The Observatory urges the Russian Federation authorities their duty to comply with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December, 9 1998, in particular its article 1 that states “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels” and with international and regional human rights instruments guaranteeing freedoms of association and expression.