Complaint about searches in offices of “Memorials”* filed to ECtHR

In a complaint filed to the European court of Human Rights (ECtHR), human rights defenders have pointed out that the searches in the offices of the “International Memorial” * (International Historical Educational Charitable and Human Rights Society “Memorial” and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* were carried out with violations, and the office equipment was seized unreasonably.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on March 4, law enforcers conducted searches in the offices of the HRC “Memorial”* and “International Memorial”* in Moscow, as well as in the “Civic Assistance Committee”* and seized the office equipment and documents. The searches were related to a case against human rights defender Bakhrom Khamroev, accused of extremism, who worked for the “Civic Assistance Committee”* 17 years ago and is a member of the HRC “Memorial”*. The searches in the Bakhrom Khamroev’s case became a pretext to gain access to the documents of the HRC “Memorial”*, human rights defenders suggested.

The “International Memorial”* and the HRC “Memorial”* filed a complaint to the ECtHR about the searches conducted on March 4, the HRC “Memorial”* reported on its Telegram channel.

“FSB officers seized several PCs and other storage devices ... In one of the buildings, law enforcers broke into a safe, in another, they painted the walls with the letters Z and V and also left the inscription reading: “The ‘Memorial’ is over’,” the human rights defenders report.

In their complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, the NGOs referred to Article 8 the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to respect for private life and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights on the protection of property.

According to lawyers, there was no reason for the investigating authorities to seize the data storage devices.

*The organization was included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of NCOs performing the functions of a foreign agent and was liquidated by a court’s decision.