MCC dismisses complaint of former advocate of Chechen leader on case of article in "Kommersant"

The Moscow City Court has dismissed a cassation appeal filed by lawyer Andrei Krasnenkov, who earlier represented the interests of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, against the publishing house "Kommersant". The cassation appeal was filed with regard to the publication on the hearing of the case against Oleg Orlov, the former Chairman of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", whom Ramzan Kadyrov accused of libel.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Oleg Orlov was prosecuted for slandering the leader of Chechnya. The reason for the accusation was the statements made by the human rights activist about Ramzan Kadyrov's responsibility for the murder of Natalia Estemirova, a staff member of the Chechen branch of the HRC "Memorial". On June 14, 2011, the court acquitted Oleg Orlov. In his turn, Andrei Krasnenkov filed to the court a claim for honour protection, in which he demanded from the publishing house "Kommersant" to publish a refutation in connection with the article "Memorial is alleged to communicate with militants" of September 14, 2010.

The former lawyer of Ramzan Kadyrov has asked the court to oblige the defendants to refute the article published in September 2010 and to oblige them to pay compensation for moral damage, including the amount of 1 million roubles from the publishing house "Kommersant" and 50,000 roubles from each of co-defendants journalists Andrei Kozenko and Aza Isaeva. On March 4, 2014, the court dismissed the claim.

Andrei Krasnenkov has challenged the court's decision at the court of cassation of the Moscow City Court; however, they refused to initiate proceedings, the RIA "Novosti" reports on January 4 with reference to an official from the Moscow City Court.

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