Meeting in support of Andrei Yerofeyev and Yuri Samodurov planned on July 9 in Moscow

The "Solidarnost" movement has announced today that, on July 9 at 19.00, a "Meeting against state inquisition" is planned to be held in Chistye Prudy near the statue of Griboyedov, in support of Yuri Samodurov, former head of Sakharov public center, and Andrei Yerofeyev, supervisor of the exhibition "Forbidden Art-2006", who are now defendants in the high-profile trial on the exhibition.

The trial has been initiated by the organization "Popular Assembly". The reason was the use by the artists of religious attributes of Islamism and Christianity in their works. The prosecution, which wants three years of prison for the defendants, claims that the Coordination Center of North Caucasus Moslems has also expressed its dissatisfaction with the exhibition.

"On July 12, an indictment is going to be announced in Taganka district court of Moscow on the case of the "Prohibited Art" exhibition organizers who are falsely accused of stirring up religious hatred. Contrary to the law or common sense, the prosecutor requests imprisonment for the defendants. We do not want to guess why the state authorities responsible for the enforcement of the law support the gang of organized pseudo-religious obscurants, who initiated and facilitated this frame-up", runs the "Solidarnost" statement".

The document also states that the prosecution is based on "the evidence of fanatics most of whom have never visited the exhibition". "But we know for sure that the investigation on the case has been obviously slanted and biased, while the idea itself of criminal prosecution of exhibiting artistic works, which do not call for violence, contravenes the fundamental principle of the Russian state civilian character. We are sure that the state may not and should not interfere with the issues of using religious symbols or the issues of art. Still less it should interfere using criminal prosecution methods", state the authors of the statement.

The authors of the document request a "full and unconditional acquittal of Yerofeyev and Samodurov, and stopping the absurd clericalization of the Russian state". It is also stated that the meeting "will be attended by well-known workers of art and culture, human rights activists and politicians".

The exhibition "Prohibited Art-2006" was held in March 2007 in Moscow. It exhibited the works which had been prohibited for exhibiting in other places. The organizers say the aim of the event was a study of censorship and self-censorship in modern art.