St-Petersburg City Court sends "Memorial" search case to reconsideration

On February 24, the City Court of St-Petersburg satisfied the cassation presentation of the Prosecutor's Office against the decision of the Dzerzhinskiy District Court of January 20, which had concluded that the search conducted on December 4, 2008, in the office of St-Petersburg-based Scientific and Information Centre (SIC) "Memorial" was illegal, and prescribed the Prosecutor's Office to return the confiscated materials back to the SIC "Memorial".

The Court cancelled the decision because the first judicial instance had failed to properly study the authorities of advocate Gabuniya, who came to the search as representative of the "Memorial" interests. The case was sent to new consideration to the same court, which will consider it by new judges. The date of the session has not been appointed, as the statement of the Society the "Memorial" that has arrived to the "Caucasian Knot" runs.

"Today, the St-Petersburg City Court had a chance to put a full stop in the scandalous and absurd 'SIC Memorial's search case'. The Court has missed the chance, and its decision will just protract and expand the scandal, which already has an international resonance," states the human rights organization and emphasizes that the research and educational efforts of the Centre in St-Petersburg are currently paralysed, since the computer hard drives containing the results of twenty years' work of the SIC "Memorial" - unique databases on the history of Stalin terror - are still kept by the Prosecutor's Office.

The "Caucasian Knot" has already reported that Ivan Pavlov, advocate for the "Memorial", filed a complaint to the Dzerzhinskiy Court against militiamen's actions, after the Investigatory Division of the Tsentralny District failed to answer the questions as to legitimacy of the search.