MoJ may claim to liquidate HRC "Memorial" after inspection, rights defenders report

On November 9, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" received by mail the final act of the scheduled inspection of the NGO conducted starting from October 5 by the Chief Department for Moscow of the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ). In the above act, among other items, the Russian MoJ files a political accusation against the NGO. This was reported by the press release of the HRC "Memorial" received by the "Caucasian Knot". The human rights defenders deny the accusations and intend to send their objections to the Russian MoJ.

"By their actions, members of the NGO HRC 'Memorial' were undermining the constitutional order of the Russian Federation: they were calling for the overthrow of the current government and change of the political regime in the country," states the document received from the Russian MoJ as quoted by the human rights defenders.

Such conclusions are made due to the fact that, according to MoJ's officials, the HRC "Memorial" creates negative public opinion "towards the state policy followed by higher governmental authorities, expresses disagreement with the decisions and actions of the above mentioned institutions of power and with the results of preliminary investigations and completed court verdicts in resonant criminal cases."

As the examples, the MoJ's officials mention the human rights defenders' estimates of the Russia's actions towards Ukraine, the publication of the information that Russian soldiers were involved in the combat actions in Donbas, and the disagreement with the verdict in the "Bolotnaya Square case."

The HRC "Memorial" indicates that the information on the involvement of Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian conflict is "based on numerous and irrefutable facts." In these and all other statements of the HRC "Memorial" there is nothing what MoJ is accusing the organization of, says Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the Board of the HRC "Memorial".

The human rights defenders intend to send their objections to the Russian MoJ.

Meanwhile, Kirill Koroteev, a lawyer of the HRC "Memorial", does not exclude that the Russian MoJ may claim for the liquidation of HRC "Memorial" following the results of the inspection.

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