Pickets in support of HRC "Memorial" held near MoJ's building

Today, human rights defenders have held a series of pickets near the building of the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) against the actions of the MoJ with regard to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". This was reported by Valery Borschev, a participant of the protest action.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 9, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" received the final act of the regular inspection of the organization, carried out since October 5 by the Chief Department for Moscow of the Russian Ministry of Justice. According to the human rights defenders, following the outcome of the inspection, the Russian MoJ accused the HRC "Memorial" of "undermining the constitutional order of Russia." The MoJ has obliged the HRC "Memorial" to eliminate the revealed violations until December 21.

The participants of the protest action were approaching the fence near the building of the Russian MoJ one by one and passing to each other the posters with the inscriptions reading: "We are 'Memorial'." This was reported by Valery Borschev, a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG).

He has emphasized that "the decision to hold a protest action has been made by the human rights board," which includes Lyudmila Alexeeva, Sergey Kovalev, Lev Ponomaryov, and Svetlana Gannushkina, the "TASS" reports.

"We are protesting against the fact that the criticism of the authorities is suddenly treated as undermining of the state system," said Valery Borschev. He has also noted that the participants of the protest action intend to "seek for the consideration of the issue at the highest level."

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