Court appoints linguistic examination of Igor Averkiev's article about the Caucasus

On October 13, the Leninskiy Court of Perm made a decision to suspend proceedings on the claim of the Prosecutor's Office of the Perm Territory to recognize the article about the Caucasus, written by Igor Averkiev, Chairman of the Perm Civil Chamber, to be an extremist one.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that the criminal case against Averkiev was initiated under part 1, Article 280 of the Russian Criminal Code, because of his article "We Leave the Caucasus - and Become Freer and Stronger."

The proceeding was suspended until results of the forensic-linguistic examination of the article, as reported by the press service of the Perm Civil Chamber.

The "Interfax" reports that the examination may take 2-3 months.

The human rights activist himself had stated earlier his intention to hold an independent linguistic examination.

The preliminary hearings on Igor Averkiev's case, in whose article about the Caucasus the Prosecutor's Office saw "appeals to extremist activities", were to take place On September 17. However, under the decision of the judge, the session was re-appointed on October 13.

Another reason of postponement was in non-appearance of representative of the Ministry of Justice - a party in the case. Igor Averkiev said in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the judge did not know how to run the case: "This case, as a matter of fact, is very complex; we had no precedents here in Perm."

As to consideration term, he supposed the trial will last for 12-18 months.

In the opinion of Chechen Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev, "the case won't result in his [Averkiev's] imprisonment, but it'll be a lesson and a signal to others."

Let us remind you that earlier Nukhazhiev had criticised Averkiev's article. "I don't know why, but rejection of Chechnya by the founder of the Perm Human Rights Centre and, most likely, a rampant nationalist and the chauvinist (how he combines it?), is absolute and categorical," the Ombudsman commented the article.

Let us note here that Mr Averkiev not for the first time gets in the focus of law enforcement bodies. Thus, on February 18, 2008, the Perm Branch of the "Rossvyazokhrankultura" (Federal Agency for Defending Communications and Culture) addressed the local Prosecutor's Office with a demand to make responsible the editorial board of the newspaper "Za Cheloveka" (For Human) and author Igor Averkiev for his article "Putin Is Our Good Hitler" of December 3-7, 2007. Already then, the Office saw "extremist orientation" in the material of the Chairman of the Perm Civil Chamber.