Rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina denies claim of defamation against Chechen MIA

The NGO "Civic Assistance Committee" cannot be a defendant in the claim for protecting business reputation filed after the Svetlana Gannushkina's post in Facebook, state lawyers of the NGO. They filed an appeal against the decision pronounced by the Shatoi District Court of Chechnya. Svetlana Gannushkina believes her post about the departure of Ramazan Djalaldinov from Chechnya after threats did not discredit the reputation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), but saved it, since Ramazan Djalaldinov was considered killed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ramazan Djalaldinov, a resident of the village of Kenkhi, who in April 2016 appealed to President Vladimir Putin with a complaint about corruption in Chechnya and who was persecuted, disappeared in November 2016. Later, the man told Svetlana Gannushkina he got threats from Apti Alaudinov, Chechen First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.

The complaints voiced by Ramazan Djalaldinov attracted the attention of the media, and the Chechen MIA filed a claim against the man for protecting honour, dignity, and business reputation. Later, the lawsuit was supplemented with claims against the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" and the "Civic Assistance Committee", headed by Svetlana Gannushkina. On August 2, 2017, the Shatoi District Court granted the claim, but the information about that was not made public.

Rights defenders treat the Court's decision as illegal. According to Svetlana Gannushkina, the NGO "Civic Assistance Committee" is not responsible for her statements.

Alexander Cherkasov, the chairman of the Council for the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", has expressed his solidarity with Svetlana Gannushkina. However, according to him, in Russia, "the laws of logic do not always work."

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