Main events: draft reform; passing verdicts on the Koptsev case and to the killers of Khursheda Sultonova and abolishment of the sentence in Scherbinsky’s case; Army C-in C denies the fact of Private Andrei Sychev’s beating; pastor’s daughter was dismissed from the position of the institute’s monitor for talking about her belief; government will review the issue about ‘demilitarization’ of a number of state bodies.
The survey offered for readers’ attention is dedicated to the human rights situation in Russia: the main events and the attitude of the human rights community to them. The survey was prepared by the Demos Center with the support from the OSI-Assistance Foundation.
Themes of the issue:
LEGISLATION
Draft reform
NCO taxation
Toughening responsibility for dissemination of extremist information
LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
Lawsuit on unlawful detention for taking photos against the background of the FSB division building
Moscow city court let the sentence to a policeman who shot a stowaway in the mouth stand
Sentence to policemen in Kazan
In Ulyanovsk judicial proceedings began against a policeman who beat up children
Trial on Pumane case is finished
RIGHT TO JUST TRIAL
Sentence on Scherbinsky’s case is abolished
CIVIL LIBERTIS
One of the authors of Chechen separatists’ site Kavkaz-center is detained.
Pastor’s daughter was dismissed from the position of the institute’s monitor for talking about her belief
RIGHTS OF SERVICEMEN
PACE criticizes human rights violations in the armies of the Council of Europe’s countries
Army C-in-C denies the fact of Private Andrei Sychev’ being beaten up
The movement ‘for Human rights’ appealed to the Chief Military Prosecutor in connection with the death of Private Roman Grigoriev
Government will review the issue about ‘demilitarizing’ a number of state bodies
RIGHTS OF PRISONERS
Hunger strike in Mordovia’s colony
NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA
Verdict on the case of killing a nine-year-old Khursheda Sultonova
Sentence in the case of Alexander Koptsev who attacked the worshipers of a Moscow synagogue with a knife
Russian Nazis disseminate the ‘Street terror manual’ in the Internet
Federation of Jewish communities resents presence of anti-Semitic literature in the book fair
Two thirds of Russians believe that fascists pose a real danger
MVD personnel desecrated Koran
KHODORKOVSKY’S CASE
Priest of Russian Orthodox Church was barred from service for compassion to Khodorkovsky
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LEGISLATION
Draft reform
On March 27a package of draft bills related to the military reform was submitted to the State Duma. These secure a transfer from the two-year to one-year period of service for soldiers on active duty starting from 2008. Instead the Ministry of Defence proposes introducing a punishment for servicemen serving on a contractual basis who decided to quit the forces ahead of time and – the main thing – to repeal a significant part of the deferments.
The law abolishes almost all the social and professional deferments – subject to call-up will the children of pensioners and invalids, fathers of small children (up to the age of three) and the draftees whose wives are pregnant. The deferment for the personnel of defence industrial enterprises will also be cancelled. Only deferments on medical grounds remained in force - the military are not going to patch up the holes of recruitment with unhealthy conscripts.
At the same time the reduction of the so called educational deferments is stipulated separately in the draft law of the Ministry of Defence. The military decided not to call up schoolboys and students of vocational schools to the armed forces but declared that they would be able to get education without the risk of the draft before the age of 20.
Who suffered more than others were the gifted and talented young men – the so called ‘balalaika players.’ It is proposed that the presidential decrees of 1992-2002 that exempted young men engaged in the sphere of culture and art be deemed null and void. Along with them clergymen who enjoyed the right for deferment four years ago will also join the forces. The Ministry of Defence also proposes that deferments for country teachers and doctors be waived.
The Ministry of Defence also proposes demanding that cadets of military schools who refused to sign a contract with the forces refund the money spent on their training. The same will be demanded from ‘undisciplined, slow students who don’t want to study and fail to master the curriculum for cadets.’ However, subject for refund will only be the money spent on military training and not all of it.
Comments by human rights activist Lev Levinson, Institute of Human Rights:
This decision is not the final one. I think that the State Duma will be allowed to win back a couple of deferments so that it would receive some dividends from this business too. But in principle among the deferments proposed for excluding there is not a single one that could be repealed painlessly. Deferments are socially motivated, they are tied to the family obligations of citizens which nobody cancelled. The family code obliges one to take care of the children, take care of the parents, bear responsibility of supporting the family. How does this match the abolishment of deferments related to taking care of invalids or of children before the age of three?
It is absolutely impermissible to rescind deferments of medium level technical schools, vocational schools, colleges, because this destroys vocational technical training. It seriously undermines the training of qualified workers. On the other hand, the biggest percentage of conscripts drafted into the armed forces is exactly the graduates of vocational schools and colleges who at first enjoy a deferment and then the majority of them go and serve. Now they will be inducted untrained and as a result we shall get even less professional armed forces, contrary to the declarations.
There remains a serious collision between the deferment abolishment time and the introduction of the reduced term of service. While one can yet agree that the reduction of the term of service to 1 year is a tangible softening of the military duty, it was stated that first deferments are abolished and then the term of service is reduced gradually. Some mistrust arises: it is not the first time that political dividends were earned by the reduction of the service period, but then the people were cheated. They may reduce it to a year and a half and then backpedal and stop on this period of one year and a half.
NCO taxation
Deputies intend
to returnNCO tax benefits. Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation want to introduce the respective corrections into articles 251, 265 and 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. This will make it possible to grant NCO privileges on property and land plot taxes and to repeal the property tax for the companies rendering charity assistance.
In the opinion of the deputies, the approach to concessional taxation should be different. ‘If the activities of NCOs do public good and are in demand, the state may make concessions,’ noted Olga Dmitrieva, a participant of the round table ‘NCO: problems of functioning,’ a member of the Russian Federation State Duma Committee for budget and taxes. At present those who wish to donate money for charity must pay taxes from this sum.
To enhance stability and ensure long-term work of public organizations it is necessary to let the non-commercial sector participate in providing social services on a par with the state as well as to grant business an opportunity to contribute money for charity programmes, believes Andrei Topolev, a co-director of the Social Information Agency. New steps in the sphere of taxation should clearly correspond to the activities of NCOs in order to prevent possible use of charity for selfish ends by organizations that are actually not involved in the socially useful activities.
Toughening responsibility for dissemination of extremist information
Amendments to the legislation toughening responsibility for dissemination of extremist information
have undergone all stages of approval and are ready for review at the session of the State Duma. Experts share the opinion that if they are adopted the Russian segment of the Internet will be in grave danger – under the pretext of fighting extremism political dissent will begin to be suppressed there.
Amendments to the law ‘On countering extremist activities’ are aimed at preventing the use of ‘general public networks for conducting extremist activities.’ The electronic information resources used to spread extremist materials or give references to the respective sites will be punished.
Chief editors of the mass media as well as organizations issuing and disseminating extremist information will be punished by administrative fines (from 40 to 50 minimal wages for officials and from 1 to 2 thousand minimal wages for legal entities). That is, the maximum punishment will amount to 200 thousand rubles. The law does not explain what bodies will figure out the ‘hotbeds’ of extremism in the Russian segment of the Internet and what they will do if a certain site is not registered as mass media.
Svetlana Gannushkina, an expert of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for developing the civil society and human rights institutions, stated that the amendments toughening the extremism legislation in the part of disseminating nationalistic appeals in the Internet ‘will be used in the law enforcement practice for political purposes, for fighting dissent, opposition, but in no way for eradicating extremism.’ ‘Fascists will walk free as before and nobody from the law enforcement agencies will touch them,’ she believes. ‘That is why the Draconian sanctions laid down in the law have no sense whatsoever.’ For example, the site of the Movement against illegal immigration could never be closed. When she appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office and legal proceedings began, the site quickly changed the name of the domain having registered in the USA. ‘American providers said that they are not responsible for the contents of the sites and suggested taking a legal action to prove the guilt of the site owners. This terminated all the proceedings,’ said Gannushkina.
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LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
Lawsuit on unlawful detention for taking photos against the background of FSB division building
In the Nizhny Novgorod district court
a preliminary session took place on March 15 on the civil suit of Nizhny Novgorod citizen Anastasia Trmalova against the FSB division in the Nizhny Novgorod region whereby she demands a compensation in the amount of 40 thousand rubles for moral damage. The plaintiff asserts that a year ago she and her foreign friend suffered from fright and was deprived of freedom for several hours due to the actions of the security service operatives.
On February 25, 2005 she and her Swedish friend who came to study the civil society in Russia were taking a walk along the centre of Nizhny Novgorod. While passing the FSB division building the Swede decided to take a picture ‘against the background of terrible KGB’ and his companion managed to make a couple of shots.
After this, Trmalova said, ‘a giant wearing shoulder boards jumped out of the doors,’ grabbed them by the collars of their winter coats and pulled them inside. FSB officers stated that it is not allowed to take pictures against the background of a secret facility and they had better not call their lawyers. After a four-hour scrutiny of the documents the Swede was told that he had no right to stay in the territory of Russia. The photos of the FSB division building were erased and the people were let go.
After a close acquaintance with the state of the civil society in Russia the Swede hastily returned home, while Trmalova went to the military prosecution office with the request to initiate criminal proceedings against the FSB personnel as per article 286 and article 127 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation (‘Exceeding official authority’ and ‘Unlawful deprivation of freedom’). The prosecution office refused to initiate the legal proceedings, then Trmalova’s lawyer lodged a complaint with the Nizhny Novgorod military garrison court.
Chairman of the garrison court Vladimir Tsygulev rejected Trmalova’a complaint and let the ruling of the military prosecution office on refusal to initiate legal proceedings stand. The main argument of the prosecution office was the security status of the regional FSB building. In late July last year the lawyer tried to appeal against the decision of the garrison court to the Moscow military district court, but of no avail.
During the preliminary court session on March 15 the plaintiff was not present and her interests were represented by a lawyer of the Committee against torture Yuri Sidorov.
Moscow city court let the sentence to a policeman who shot a stowaway in the mouth stand
On March 16 the Moscow city court turned down the cassation complaint against the sentence to the former sergeant of the 1st police precinct of the Moscow Metro Police Department Boris Kostruba. Earlier he was sentenced to 9 years’ imprisonment in the maximum security prison.
On the 31st of July, 2004 a Tadjik worker Rustam Baibekov, 20, together with his mate tried to enter the Metro station Sokolniki using one ticket. Sergeant Boris Kostruba detained the ticketless passenger, checked up his documents and established that Baibekov has no registration.
In the police precinct the sergeant threatened him with deportation beyond the boundaries of the Russian Federation and suggested that he pay one thousand rubles. When Baibekov answered that he had no money, the policeman took out a gun and shot Baibekov in the mouth from a standard issue weapon using an unaccounted cartridge. The bullet pierced through the mouth and went out through the back. The victim survived by a miracle and underwent several complicated operations.
In an effort to conceal the crime Kostruba did not render first aid to the victim, did not permit ambulance to be called, drove the victim and eyewitnesses out of the police premises. During the investigation the defendant fully admitted his guilt.
Sentence to policemen in Kazan
On the 25th of March
the court of Kazan’s Aviastroitelny district found the personnel of the patrol and stationary post service of Tatarstan’s MVD Valery Gusev and Vladimir Semyonov guilty of exceeding official authority with the use of special gear (article 286, part 3 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation). Both were given a three years’ imprisonment suspended sentence with a probation period of 1 year. Besides, the policemen do not have the right to hold any posts in the bodies of state power for two years.
As follows from the bill of indictment, on the 19th of February, 2001 a retired Major Rafael Suleimanov, 56, was stopped in the street by the patrolmen who demanded to inspect the contents of his bag without any grounds. Having shown the bag and the identity card of the military service veteran the man in turn asked the policemen to introduce themselves and show a document permitting them to inspect his personal belongings.
In response the policemen delivered Suleimanov to a stationary police post, beat him up to unconsciousness, handcuffed him and released tear gas Chereyomukha into his mouth. Then they stole 5,000 rubles from the man, and later, in the District Division of Internal Affairs, they made up false reports on administrative offenses allegedly committed by the detainee.
Based on these on the 20th of February the district court ruled that the veteran be released and imposed a fine of 40 rubles on him. Suleimanov appealed to the prosecution office of Kazan’s Aviastroitelny district and to the Supreme Court of Tatarstan. The court recognized that Suleimanov committed no administrative offenses, thereby confirming his unlawful detention. Meanwhile the district prosecution office 10 times (!) during five years passed decisions on refusal to initiate a legal action and then on termination of the criminal case.
In 2004 Suleimanov applied to the Human Rights Center in Kazan the lawyers of which carried out a public investigation of the case and brought it to court. ‘At the last session the court cleared the policemen of theft. They themselves never admitted their guilt,’ the human rights center noted. The center lawyers said that they will perhaps appeal against the verdict believing it too soft. Besides, the lawyer intends to initiate an official investigation on the fact of inaction on the part of the prosecution office.
In Ulyanovsk judicial proceedings began against a policeman who beat up children
On March 22judicial proceedings began in Ulyanovsk against a policeman who cruelly beat up children and teenagers at the age from 12 to 20. Police Senior Lieutenant Alexander Kuznetsov, 22, asserts that he only headed the operation ‘Quadrat’ which was undertaken to prevent street crime. Actually the ‘prevention’ turned into the mass beating of the teenagers.
The incident occurred in the evening of December 23 in the yard of city school No.70. Police personnel detained more than twenty teenagers. According to the victims, the police arrived in several vehicles wearing full gear and carrying weapons. Without a word the teenagers were thrown into the dirt face down, then beaten up and delivered for interrogation unlawfully. To the question of one of the detainees ‘By what right?’ a policeman pointed a gun in his eye and answered: ‘Here is my right.’ After this cleansing three young men asked for medical assistance.
Eyewitnesses report that Senior Lieutenant Alexander Kuznetsov several times jumped on the head of a guy lying on the snow thus inflicting a serious injury on him. One more teenager lying on the ground was kicked by Kuznetsov in the face for lifting up his head. Denis Tikhonovich suffered most: he sustained a craniocerebral injury, brain concussion, closed fracture of the nose bones.
As was reported in the prosecution office, after ‘cleansing’ in the school yard ten teenagers were taken to the department for minors where they were questioned whether they know anybody from the their environment who was involved in street robberies and holdups. About midnight the teenagers were allowed to go home. No charges were brought against them.
They themselves are shocked by the incident. When talking to the press relatives are afraid of giving their names; moreover, one of the mothers received telephone threats and was told to take away her petition from the prosecution office.
The indictment records the evidence of all the victims and the accused Kuznetsov himself. Today the 22-year old operative is accused of beating up a group of young people. The policeman is charged under part 3 of article 286 of the Penal Code (‘exceeding official authority with the use of violence’). Meanwhile the victims’ lawyer Talkin Utambayev says that several police personnel took part in the beating. For this particular reason Utambayev already filed a petition on summoning for interrogation all the policemen who were present during Kuznetsov’s beating the young men.
‘The very fact that the case of ‘school cleansing’ was brought to court indicates a lot,’ said the head of the Ulyanovsk Human Rights group Dmitri Gavrilov. ‘We shall do our best for the policeman to get what he deserves.’ Human rights activists from Ulyanovsk’s youth human rights organization joined us when attempts were made to hush up the matter. Besides, it is quite possible that the case was let go on because one of the parents had occupied a rather high-ranking post in the police a while ago.’
Trial on Pumane’s case is finished
On March 29 The Presnensky Court of Moscow found policemen guilty of the death of submariner officer Alexander Pumane, the court reported. ‘The court established that the accused committed negligence that caused heavy consequences, Pumane’s death, says the verdict.
Pumane was detained in the Presnensky district of Moscow on September 18, 2004 about 01.30. He was driving a car, VAZ-21053, carrying two mines MON-50 with electric detonators, a 200 g TNT block, electric circuit control unit and a 20-liter jerry can with white liquid.
The detainee was delivered to the police precinct whence he was hospitalized in the Institute of Emergency Medical Care named after Sklifosovsky where he later died. The preliminary results of the prosecutors’ investigation revealed that Pumane died from bodily injuries sustained.
Police personnel in violation of the duty instructions failed to register Pumane delivered to the precinct in the log book, handed over the detainee to ‘unidentified persons’ from the police higher-ups and issued the latter with special gear ‘RP’ (a rubber club).
The chief of the duty shift in the police precinct of the Presnensky district Josif Smereka was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a settlement colony. The chief of the police precinct Andrei Semigin got a two years’ suspended sentence. The man actually suspected of killing Pumane – Major Konstantin Dushenko - is still wanted.
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RIGHT TO JUST TRIAL
Sentence on Scherbinsly’s case is repealed
On March 23 the Altai territory court abolished the guilty verdict against Oleg Scherbinsky convicted in the case of Governor Mikhail Evdokimov’s death. The court fully acquitted him and ruled that criminal persecution against him be terminated. The accused himself was not present at the session, he was in the investigation isolation ward in the city of Biisk. The judicial assembly ruled that Scherbinsky be released from custody.
The zone district court of the Altai territory during its session on February 3 found Scherbinsky guilty of an accident that killed the Altai Governor and sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment in a settlement colony and deprived him of the driving license for three years.
The accident that killed Governor Evdokimov, his driver and his guard took place on August 7 last year on the highway near the village of Pleshkovo. The governor’s Mercedes moving at a high speed brushed when overtaking against a Toyota car moving in the same direction in which two women and two children were travelling besides the driver, shot out of the highway and hit a tree. In the same accident the governor’s spouse Galina Evdokimova sustained heavy injuries.
The investigators of the Prosecutor General’s Office in the Siberian district who conducted the investigation charged Scherbinsky as per part 3 of article 264 of the Russian Penal Code – ‘violation of the traffic rules that caused the death of two or more persons.’ According to the investigators’ data, Scherbinsky did not give way to the governor’s car which was moving with the flasher on and because of this had priority on the road. Scherbinsly’s defence stated that the rules were violated by Evdokimov’s driver: he was driving at a speed of 200 km/h and failed.
Not long before the trial motorists all over Russia undertook actions in Oleg Scherbinsky’s defence. In the Maritime territory alone more than 6 thousand signatures were collected in the driver’s support. ‘The fact that a high-ranking person was hurt in the accident should not have an effect on the court’s impartiality. The verdict to Scherbinsky casts doubts on the people’s certainty of the judicial power’s justice when defending their interests,’ the statement said.
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CIVIL LIBERTIES
One of the authors of Chechen separatists’ site Kavkaz-center was detained
On March 21 Boris Stomakhin was detained in Moscow. He is an activist of the anti-war movement, a constant author of the site Kavkaz-center, the editor of the newspaper Radical Policy. Stomakhin’s detention was connected with the criminal case initiated in December 2003 under which he was charged in April 2004 as per article 280, part 2 (‘public appeals to extremist activities made with the use of mass media’) and article 282, part 1 (‘inciting religious hatred committed in public or with the use of mass media) of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation. However the case was never brought to court, and the relevant investigations were not undertaken for a long time.
During the detention Stomakhin tried to escape through the window, fell down from the fourth floor and was hospitalized with the fracture of the leg and processes of two vertebra. In the hospital the detainee was visited by the investigator of the prosecution office of the North-Eastern administrative district S.N.Kolobova with the materials of the said criminal case. Thereafter he was transferred to the closed division of the hospital and kept under guard.
International human rights activists managed to interview Boris Stomakhin’s mother. Boris’s condition is very heavy despite the fact he is conscious and can speak, human rights activist Larisa Volodymerova reported from Amsterdam: ‘Boris Stomakhin’s mother, Regina Leonidovna, appealed to all the human rights activists of the world and requested a maximum possible support to the case since only the publicity and immediate involvement of journalists from other countries will protect Boris from an even bigger danger. Regina Leonodovna tries to do all by herself, but asks for help: ‘Above all, she says, publicity is required and the money for the lawyer’s fee. Professional advice, material support is required. Boris must stay in bed for a minimum of three months. They move him constantly from place to place hurting the backbone. Regina Leonidovna warns that Boris may die.’
Pastor’s daughter was dismissed from the position of institute’s monitor for talking about her belief
On march 6 female students of the Slavvyansky-on-Kuban state pedagogical Institute were summoned to the dean’s office in connection with visits to the Church of the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union. Student Nina Fedotova whose father serves as pastor with the said church was accused of enticing her fellow students to ‘their organization’ using her position of a monitor. Deputy Dean S.A.Sheptii questioned her why she told her fellow students about her belief at all and why she invited them to her home. As a result the deanery took a decision to dismiss N.Fedotova from the position of the monitor. She was also warned that if she didn’t stop telling about her belief she would be expelled from the institute.
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RIGHTS OF SERVICEMEN
PACE criticizes human rights violations in the armies of the Council of Europe countries
On March 15 the Committee on legal issues and human rights of the Council of Europe published a report on the human rights situation in the armies of the CE member states. Special criticism was given to the position of servicemen in Russia and some former USSR republics. Some observers consider the report as an intermediate step on the way to the resolution which will be discussed at the April session of PACE.
The report authors qualify the situation in the Russian armed forces as ‘causing extreme concern’ and almost one fifth of the text is devoted to it. With reference to the data of the human rights activists and the servicemen themselves the document says that conscripts as early as at the start of the military service begin to be subjected to torture one can only imagine in a bad dream. According to the document, from 50% to 80% of the young servicemen become the victims of psychological and physical violence on the part of their higher-ranking mates and old-timers. The main causes of the deaths of the conscript soldiers every year are the harsh service conditions and disorderly relationship which inevitably lead to desertion. As before the authorities are unable to even assess the magnitude of the problem.
The authors of the report also mention extremely severe conditions of service for the military. Besides, commanders often use soldiers as slaves ‘leasing’ them to commercial entities for harvesting or construction work. The report underlines that corruption exists at all levels of the armed forces beginning from the military commissariats that find young men unfit for service for a fee.
Army C-in-C denies the fact of Private Andrei Sychev being beaten up
20 ìàðòà The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army Colonel-General Aleksei Maslov stated that the old-timers did not haze Private Andrei Sychev in any way: ‘I can report that the fact of a mass drinking spree on the New Year night among the servicemen of the battalion (training support battalion of the Chelyabinsk Defence Institute) did not take place. The facts of beating, mockery and other types of hazing against Sychev on the part of the battalion old timers are not confirmed.’
According to the Army Chief, some individual personnel of the military prosecution office displayed prejudiced attitude in investigating the Sychev incident. It is possible that Maslov’s statement is connected to the fact that a week before three young soldiers who witnessed Sychev being hazed by the drunk old-timers of the Chelyabinsk Tank School on that night were reported missing.
Earlier Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov stated that Andrei Sychev lost his legs due to inappropriate treatment. According to Savenkov, the amputation of the soldier’s legs was caused by ‘beating on the part of his mates and a crime committed by them.’ In this case Junior Sergeant Alexander Sivyakov who was directly involved in hazing Private Sychev is kept in custody. He is charged as per part 3 of article 286 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation (exceeding official authority that caused heavy consequences).
Now, two and a half months later, the doctors of the hospital named after Burdenko found that the soldier had thrombophilia – a severe hereditary blood disease of genetic nature and that diagnostics of this level was impossible during the call-up, while the beating only aggravated the disease. Therefore, the defence department may question the extent of Sychev’s hazing and reduce the level of criticism on the part of the society.
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The next day
on March 21 the prosecution office of the Volga-Ural military district denied the words of the Army C-in-C Aleksei Maslov to the effect that old-timers did not haze Andrei Sychev. According to a source close to the investigators, all the proof has been collected and they have no doubts that Sychev was the victim of hazing. As for the words of C-in-C Maslov, the source said : ‘Ministry of Defence tries to free MOD of blame. They sank to trivial lies, but we have everything, all the proof. And we don’t need anything else.’ A prosecution office staffer confirmed that the case will soon completed and its materials will be presented to Junior Sergeant Alexander Sivyakov to get familiarized with.
Comments by Olga Shepeleva,Demos Centre:
The C-in-C voiced the version of the events offered by the military. One cannot exclude that this version is true. However it should be kept in mind that the position of the military in this matter is the position of the defendant. The military prosecution office conducting the investigation of the case is perhaps of a different opinion. It did not make official statements on this issue yet. The press only quoted anonymous statements ‘of a source in the prosecution office of the Volga-Ural military district.’ Probably, the prosecution office will present its version of the events in court.’
In his statement the C-in-C in advance did not agree with the official version of the prosecution office which has not been voiced yet and accused the prosecution personnel of prejudice and exceeding authority. It is difficult to say to what extent the C-in-C’s accusation is justified: it is only possible to assess the quality (including the degree of impartiality) of work of the investigative bodies after getting familiarized with the materials of the criminal case.
It seems to me that public will only be able to understand who is right in this conflict – the military or the prosecution office – when the investigation is over and the case will be referred to court. That is why it is so important that the judicial proceedings on this case be public. The press and the public should have access to the legal proceedings.
The movement ‘For human rights’ appealed to the Chief Military Prosecutor in connection with the death of Private Roman Grigoriev
The All-Russian movement ‘For the human rights’
in March sent a petition to the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Russian Federation V.Savenkov on the law violation by the commands of military units and inaction of the military prosecution bodies. Grounds for the complaint were the death of the already discharged Private Roman Grigoriev in a military unit new Moscow for an unknown reason.
The Chairman of the Penza regional public movement ‘Soldiers of the Motherland’ for protection of the servicemen’ rights Dmitri Pyslar told that ‘according to R.Grigoriev’s statement, he was repeatedly beaten; throughout the whole service term soldiers from his unit were used to build garages for civilians, to do harvesting work for the farmers, to unload machines at the textile factory. A criminal case in connection with the servicemen being used by the unit commander for the wrong purpose was not registered by the prosecution office of the North-Caucasus military district.’ In his words, during the funeral of the deceased soldier the unit commander voiced the ‘official version’ of the Private’s death – ‘he died with joy that he is going home.’
Grigoriev was discharged from the Armed Forces on medical grounds and died at the doors of the company’s office where ‘a contract man’ who had earlier beaten him was sent to escort him to his native town. The prosecution office of the Balashikha garrison which investigated this criminal case did not allow the mother of the deceased soldier to see the materials of the investigation and then closed the case due to the absence of corpus delicti. Roman Grigoriev was crossed out of the unit personnel list post factum, several days before the date of death. ‘It so happened that the soldier died already being a civilian, that he does not deserve a monument being put at his grave and that his parents will get neither an insurance, nor a pension,’ stressed the human rights activist.
Government will review the issue of ‘demilitarizing’ a number of state bodies
In the near future
the government is expected to review at its session the issue of abolishing the system of attachment of officers and generals to the state bodies of power. This draft law is also related to the proposal to ‘demilitarize’ the Chief Military Prosecution Office and military courts where about 3 thousand people are serving.
On March 28 the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation began to disseminate ‘methodical recommendations on the issues of cooperation with the representatives of the preliminary investigation bodies.’ These are approved by the order of the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov and are intended to set up a barrier between the investigators of the military prosecution office and the minister’s subordinates.
The main document regulating legal work in the forces is the Manual on legal work in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation approved by the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation in 2001.The manual only mentions the protection of the rights, honour and dignity in another three articles out of 573, though along with the ‘quality organization of legal training.’ Since the manual does not say a word about hazing and disorderly relationship nobody is obliged to fight it. They sort of don’t exist. The only state body that monitored the legality in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and fought against hazing is the Chief Military Prosecution Office.
The Chief Military Prosecution Office refuses to comment on the order of the Minister of Defence which is fraught with provoking a new round of the interdepartmental conflict. However the assistant to the Chief Military Prosecutor Mikhail Yanenko denied any conjectures about the conflict.
‘The military prosecution office was established for the sake of servicemen and works for them only and in the name of the state. Ask questions about it in the Ministry of Defence, Internal Security troops of MVD, in the civil defence troops of the Ministry for Emergencies, frontier guard service and all other people wearing military uniform,’ says the assistant to the Chief Military Prosecutor.
Co-Chairperson of the Republican Party Valentina Melnikova believes that the defence department ‘tries to destroy military lawyers as a class.’ She quoted the words of the State-Secretary, Deputy Minister of Defence Nilolai Pankov that ‘a draft law has already been developed whereby all military courts are to be ‘demilitarized’ and turned into the institutes of the state civil service.’ The same fate, in the opinion of Valentina Melnikova, is awaiting the Chief Military Prosecution Office since ‘military prosecution offices without military courts are nothing.’
The adviser to the Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Anatoly Tolkachenko stated that the respective bill is now being approved by the Supreme Court. Military courts are in no way abolished, but service with them will gradually be ‘demilitarized.’ It has already been decided that since 2007 the military service will be abolished in the Military Collegium and in the Chief Directorate for supporting the activities of military courts of the judicial department under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. However the personnel of garrison and district military courts (all in all 855 servicemen) will wear uniforms until 2011.
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RIGHTS OF PRISONERS
Hunger strike in Mordovian colony
In March about 90 people serving a prison term in a Mordovian colony near the village of Udarny (station Porma)
went on hunger strike. They thus express protest against the terms of custody and bad treatment on the part of the colony authorities. In early March the personnel of the colony beat up prisoners who went on hunger strike to protest against terms of detention. In response other convicts joined the strike. Then about 30 people without personal effects were taken to be penal isolation ward of the neighbouring correctional institution).
It will be recalled that last month 150 prisoners already went on hunger strike in Mordovia to protest against disregard for the safety precautions in hazardous production and did not report for work. In response to the protest the administration removed leaky tanks with hazardous substances (formalin, urea, ammonia) beyond the boundaries of the colony while the known participants of the hunger strike were slated to be transferred to other colonies.
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NATIONALISM AND XENOPHOBIA
Sentence in the case on killing a nine-year-old Khursheda Sultonova
http://www.demos-center.ru/news/10382.htmlOn Thursday, March 30 the city court of Petersburg pronounced a verdict on the murder case of the nine-year-old Tadjik girl Khurshada Sultonova. The participants of the attack on the child were sentenced to real prison terms from 1.5 to 5.5. years, one was justified. A week before, on March 22, the jury passed a verdict on the case whereby the person accused of murder is guilty only of robbery, while the remaining seven are guilty of hooliganism. According to the lawyer of the Tadjik girl’s family Natella Ponomareva, the jury believe that the ‘murder was committed by unidentified persons who are still being traced.’ Earlier the investigators established that at least 11 people participated in the assault on the Sultonovs of which only eight stood trial.
The person accused of murder managed to move the jury to pity. ‘In addition to his being found not guilty of murder, the jury decided that he deserves leniency,’ the lawyer underscored. According to the NTV television company, the offended party intends to appeal against the verdict.
The 9-year-old Khursheda Sultonova was killed in Petersburg in the evening of February 9, 2004. The Tadjik family was returning home from a skating rink. In the yard of the house they were attacked by a group of young people armed with baseball clubs, iron bars and knives. The father of the family Yunus Sultonov, 35, was beaten up, his 7-year-old nephew Akibar received several blows, but managed to crawl to the car parked in the yard and hide under it, the nine-year-old Khursheda was hit 11 times with a knife by one of the attackers; she died before the ambulance arrived on the scene.
Sentence in the case of Alexander Koptsev who attacked worshippers of a Moscow synagogue with a knife
On March 27 the Moscow City Court found Alexander Koptsev, 21, guilty of attempted murder of worshippers of a Moscow synagogue and sentenced him to 13 years’ imprisonment in a maximum security colony. On January 11, 2006 Alexander Koptsev armed with a hunting knife first burst into the synagogue’s kitchen and started to stab all the people who were on his way yelling ‘I will kill all the kikes!’ Then he sneaked to the second floor where he also cut several worshippers until being overpowered. All in all nine people were hurt at the hands of the anti-Semite, including the rabbi Izkha Kogan who together with his son took an active part in seizing the culprit. As the court noted, many of the victims stayed alive only because medical assistance was rendered to them in time.
Judge Dmitri Fomin ruled that Alexander Koptsev is guilty as per part 2 of article 30 and article 105 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation (‘attempt upon the life of two and more persons on the motive of national and racial hatred’). However he did not find the anti-Semite guilty of ‘inciting national or religious hatred’ (part 2, article 282 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation). The court explained such a decision by the fact that ‘Koptsev’s intention was to kill as many Jews as possible,’ and not in ‘fomenting hatred and hostility’ to them. Moreover, fomenting hatred to Jews in a synagogue, in the opinion of the court, is just senseless. And since Alexander Koptsev, in his own words, was about to die ‘at the hands of the parishioners,’ the judge thought that the accused was not any preacher of hatred towards the Jews, but rather fell victim of anti-Semitism the ideas of which he picked up from nationalistic books and from the Internet.
Russian Nazis disseminate the ‘Street terror manual’ in the Internet
Approximately at the same time the Internet sites of Petersburg’s Nazi organizations freely
published the ‘Street terrorism manual’ which says in great detail how to deal with ‘non-Russians.’
The authors of the manual call upon teenagers to set up groups referred to as ‘white patrols’ and roam along the alleyways searching for potential victims. Members of the ‘patrol’ were recommended to dress classical style, without any distinguishing symbols. As soon as a victim is found it is to be destroyed immediately. Waste lands near hostels, markets, foreign students’ residential areas were recommended as ambush places. Potential victims are referred to in the manual only as ‘animal,’ ‘monkey,’ ‘freak.’
The law enforcement agencies of Petersburg reported that the behaviour of the city Nazis betrayed the knowledge of the manual. ‘Lately they have changed the pattern of behaviour: they stopped robbing the victims, they attack in deserted places and not as before when in the evening one could observe about five smashed noses almost at every metro station…The present developments in Petersburg resemble a guerrilla warfare and not just sallies of individual hooligans as they try to portray this.’
Federation of Jewish communities resents the presence of anti-Semitic literature in the book fair
On March 17 xenophobic and nationalistic editions were detected in Moscow at the book exhibition ‘The books of Russia.’ A representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities Borukh Gorin stated: ‘When anti-Semitic literature appears at an official exhibition, it appears that this is practically official solidarity with the most terrible, beastly anti-Semitism.’
He drew attention to the fact that ‘booths of anti-Semitic editions appeared at the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VVTs) last year…we made a statement then…..and after this such literature appeared again at the present exhibition, on a much bigger scale at that.’
http://www.demos-center.ru/news/10057.html
In this connection the head of ROSPECHAT (Russian press agency) Mikhail Seslavinsky gave instructions to the administration of the fair ‘to hand in a warrant to the organizers of the booth represented by the group of publishers Russkaya Pravda (Russian Truth) and the publishing house Algorithm with information to the effect that if they display literature fomenting national and religious hatred, the fair organizers reserve the right to remove the booths from the fair territory.’ At the same time M.Seslavinsky noted that ‘the authority of the agency does not allow the necessary legal expert examination and imposing any bans without the respective decisions of the judicial and law enforcement bodies.’
Two thirds of Russians believe that fascists pose a real danger
According to the data
of a pollconducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, two thirds of Russians (67%) believe that proponents of fascist views now pose a real danger for the society. One third of those polled (32%) stated that in their city or village there are adherents to the Nazi ideas.
The residents of large cities witness the manifestations of nationalism and fascism more frequently. Thus, in particular, more than half (54%) of the Muscovites said that ‘there are many supporters of fascism in the city.’ 47% reported that that they saw booklets and leaflets with fascist symbols.
Respondents most often quote the following organizations adhering to the fascist views: RNE (11%), NBP (8%), skinheads (7%). Also mentioned were LDPR (4%), Rodina party and CPRF (1% each).
Half of the respondents stated that they detect signs of fascism in the intolerance to the people of a different nationality, 30% mentioned ‘exalting one’s own nation,’ while 11% characterized fascism as the ‘ideology of hatred, cruelty and violence in general.’
MVD personnel desecrated the Koran
In the middle of the monththe officers of the 102th brigade of the internal security troops of MVD desecrated the Koran when searching a house in one of the villages of Dagestan’s Khasavyurt region. According to a staffer of Dagestan’s newspaper Chernovik, one of the officers who conducted the search ‘being unsatisfied with threats alone took the Koran from the shelf and began to tear out pages from it methodically,’ then he began to cut its pages with scissors and twice threw the Koran on the floor. The desecrated Koran was hidden by the local people, because unknown people came to get the sacred book.
The HQ of the MVD internal security troops said that the details of the incident should be investigated, but generally ‘the case is serious.’ According to the head of the Islamic human rights center mufti Ismagil Shangareev, ‘sacrilegious actions of the military against the Koran is the result of the large-scale Islam-phobia which is being propagated in the Russian society.’
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KHODORKOVSKY’S CASE
Priest of the Russian Orthodox Church was barred from service for being sympathetic to Khodorkovsky
On March 23 it was reported that Orthodox priest Sergii Tarukhin exiled a month ago for compassion to Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the city of Krasnokamensk where the former head of the YUKOS corporation is serving a prison term to the mountain taiga village of Krasny Chekoi received an order on barring him from service dated March 21 and signed by the Bishop of Chita and Trans-Baikal region Evstafi. The two-page document contains a detailed motivation of the hierarchs’ actions: ‘for intervention into the political activity and for attempts to involve parishioners into it.’
‘This is a ban on professional activities for political reasons,’ father Sergii commented on the decision of the church hierarchs. According to the clergyman, he deserved such language for calling Mikhail Khodorkovsky a political prisoner and for talking with the parishioners about the fate of this prisoner. Father Sergii is also charged with refusal to bless the administrative building of the Krasnokamensk colony: Father Sergii said that he would not bless the colony where prisoners suffer from undeserved torture.
