Suren Gazaryan, Kuban "EcoWatch" activist, put on international wanted list

The Moscow Bureau of Interpol has disseminated in its international network a request for the arrest of Kuban ecologist Suren Gazaryan. This was reported by his advocate Alexander Popkov.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 20, 2012, the court found Evgeny Vitishko and Suren Gazaryan, activists of the "Ecological Watch on Northern Caucasus" ("EcoWatch"), guilty of damaging a fence around the so-called "summer cottage of Alexander Tkachov, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory." Both ecologists were sentenced to three years of conditional punishment. In August 2012, a criminal case was instituted against Suren Gazaryan on suspicion of threatening to murder a guard of the so-called "summer cottage of Russian President Vladimir Putin." In late December 2012, Suren Gazaryan left Russia and appealed to the Estonian authorities with a request for political asylum. On June 11, 2013, the Estonian authorities satisfied the request of Suren Gazaryan to grant him a residence permit as a person in need of international protection.

"I believe that the Moscow Bureau of Interpol had no right to send a request in respect of Suren Gazaryan," said Alexander Popkov as quoted by the "Novaya Gazeta" on March 4. The advocate has noted that the Interpol's Charter "expressly prohibits pursuing political refugees."

According to the Suren Gazaryan's advocate, "by those actions, Russia is presumably trying to show that opponents of the current government would be found all over the world and that they would not be able to escape," the "Novaya Gazeta" explains.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.