Decision to close “International Memorial”* sparks outrage in courtroom

When the Supreme Court of Russia pronounced a decision to liquidate the “International Memorial”* (the International Historical, Educational, Charity and Human Rights Society “Memorial”), the persons who attended the trial started to chant: “Shame!” Advocates called a request of the Prosecutor’s Office to liquidate the organization unreasonable.

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia has started the pleadings in the case on the liquidation of the “International Memorial”* NGO. Representatives and the defence of the NGO requested the court not to grant the claim of the Prosecutor’s Office, but the court ruled to liquidate the “International Memorial”* NGO and its regional divisions.

According to a representative of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the “International Memorial”* NGO performed the labelling of a foreign agent “in inappropriate way” and that was a “gross and systematic violation.”

In particular, the representative of the General Prosecutor’s Office pointed to the inclusion in the list of political prisoners of two persons accused of war crimes. The prosecutor has also stated that in addition, the “International Memorial”* “creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state.” The prosecutor has added that it is the state which is involved in the rehabilitation of victims of repression: in particular, the General Prosecutor’s Office has rehabilitated 800,000 people.

Lawyer Grigory Vaipan points out that the Russia’s international obligations are violated by the inclusion of the “Memorial”* in the list of foreign agents, as well as by the law on foreign agents itself.

*The organization has been put by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on the register of foreign agents.