Supreme Court of Chechnya treats article about Chechens in "Big Encyclopaedia" as extremist

The Supreme Court of Chechnya has upheld the decision of the Zavodskoy District Court of the city of Grozny, which had recognized the article about Chechnya published by the "Terra" Publishing House in the 58th volume of its "Big Encyclopaedia" as extremist. This was announced by Judge Iskenderova, who chaired the session.

In February 2010, Vitaly Naumkin, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and other experts of the Institute promulgated their conclusion that the "article 'The Chechen Republic' contained rough falsification of the history of the Chechen people, unscientific and prejudiced estimations, which can provoke hatred and enmity to the nations of Northern Caucasus and especially to Chechens."

"Having considered the cassation complaint lodged by the 'Terra' Publishing House against the decision of the Zavodskoy Court of Grozny of April 5, which found the information material 'The Chechen Republic' placed in the 58th volume of the 'Big Encyclopaedia' to be extremist, the Judicial Board has ruled to leave the decision of the Zavodskoy Court of Grozny without changes, and the cassation complaint - without satisfaction," the "Interfax" quotes Ms Iskenderova as saying.

Lawyer Murad Musaev, who represented the interests of the accusation, has informed the "Echo Moskvy" Radio that now he is going to sue those involved in publishing the material in the Encyclopaedia.

When Sergey Kondratov, head of the "Terra" Publishing House, learnt about the decision of the Supreme Court, he expressed his intention to struggle further. He has noted that his Publishing House will not edit the article until it exhausts all the judicial chances, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.