Human Rights Defenders

30 November 2021

Pictured: Boris Altshuler, head of Right of the Child, a regional NGO for the protection of children’s rights, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group

Source: Moscow Helsinki Group

 The shutting down of Memorial* would insult the memory of Andrei Sakharov, threaten Russian national security, and rob Russia of its future.

The law enforcement system is the backbone of any state, and if it rots from within, the consequences can be catastrophic.

The “heirs of Stalin” (a phrase coined by Yevgeny Yevtushenko), entrenched in the law enforcement system, are a real threat to our country.

The case of Yury Dmitriev: who is investigating the crime of the investigators against a 12-year-old girl?

The fact that law enforcement officers act with impunity is also a disaster for all citizens of the Russian Federation.

Three groups of proposals aimed at increasing the responsibility of law enforcement officers and ensuring the independence of the judiciary.

30 November 2021

Boris Altshuler, chair of the board of the Right of the Child organization and member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, has written a letter to President Putin concerning the impending court hearing for the closure of Memorial in two weeks’ time. The letter from the prominent human rights activist reads:

To the President of the Russian Federation V. V. PUTIN.

COPIES:

To the Chair of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation V. M. Lebedev,

To the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation I. V. KRASNOV,

To the chair of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, V.A.FADEYEV

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

The 14 December will mark the 32nd anniversary of the death of Andrei Sakharov, and on the same day the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will hear the demands of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation to shut down the Memorial Society*, of which Sakharov was one of the founders. I sincerely hope that the Supreme Court will not insult the memory of our great compatriot by responding positively to the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Of course, it would be even better if Igor Krasnov withdrew his suit before 14 December. He has been asked to do so by the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) as well as by two current Russian Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Mikhail Gorbachev and Dmitry Muratov.

But this is not just about historical memory, and that is the main message of this letter, including specific suggestions at the end. The liquidation of the International Memorial Society* and the suppression of other non-profit organizations that sharply criticize shortcomings in the work of law enforcement in Russia touch upon a central problem of modern state-building in the Russian Federation, the urgent resolution of which is necessary to ensure national security and a stable future for Russia. This is the problem of ineffective oversight over the activities of law enforcement agencies (the Interior Ministry, the Investigative Committee, the FSB, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Penitentiary Service, Rosgvardia, etc.) combined with the real lack of independence of the judicial branch of government.

The law enforcement system is the backbone of any state, and if it rots from within, the consequences can be catastrophic.

You know better than I do about episodes of abuse of power in the form of torture in places of detention, during interrogations and investigations. But torture is one specific phenomenon, albeit a terrible and outrageous one. The result of lack of oversight of investigators and their impunity, as well as widespread disregard for the principle of judicial independence, has resulted in an avalanche of fabricated criminal cases, overwhelming the country. Children have also become its victims. Teenagers aged 14 who put up a flyer with words insulting for the authorities – “You grow fatt, we get poor” – on the FSB building in Kansk in Krasnoyarsk region now face up to 10 years in prison. The case of Yaroslav Inozemtsev (Volgograd), and so on – in the regions of Kostroma, Saratov, Tver, Tiumen, Krasnoyarsk, Crimea and Sakhalin. This information is being received by the Right of the Child, the civil rights project For Human Rights, and other nonprofits.

The case of Yury Dmitriev, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison based on the interrogation of a 12-year-old girl, when two women – a psychologist and an investigator – in the most brutal way abused a child’s mental well-being and made up her testimony themselves, is a landmark case of the fabrication of charges using the testimony of a minor. Video footage and other evidence of this crime by law enforcement officers are in the case file, unless, of course, they were unlawfully destroyed.

Yury Dmitriev investigated Stalin-era crimes in Karelia, the court acquitted him several times, but the order to take revenge against him obviously came from a very high office and here he is with 13 years in prison. This case tragically echoes today’s attempted reprisals against Memorial*. The “heirs of Stalin” (to use Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s expression), entrenched in the law enforcement agencies, are a real threat to our country.

But the fact that law enforcement officers act with impunity is also a disaster for all citizens of the Russian Federation. Every day we hear and read about the uncontrollable rise in prices of the bare necessities (hence the growing poverty and the new demographic disaster); but it is precisely the law enforcement agencies that sabotage execution of your direct instructions to combat cartels and monopolistic overpricing of housing, construction materials, food, medicines… It’s a similar situation with the continued protection rackets by law enforcement officers imposed on businesses that are killing the country’s economy – but they are completely out of control.

I ask you to review the attached proposed urgent measures that are aimed at increasing the accountability of law enforcement officers as well as at ensuring the independence of the judicial branch.

Sincerely

Boris Altshuler

Chair of the Board of Right of the Child

Member of the Moscow Helsinki Group

Addendum:

Three blocks of proposals aimed at taking Russia’s law enforcement and judicial systems in a civilised direction. These proposals are a result of discussions with fellow human rights defenders and lawyers who are members of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and in part echo the position of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov, and also take into account the important proposal from former Russian Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev

1. Cardinal strengthening of prosecutorial supervision over an investigation

In the USSR and during the first 15 years of the New Russia, investigation and the supervision of the legality of an investigation both fell within the same department, the prosecutor’s office, which obviously nullified the effectiveness of supervision. The creation of the Investigative Committee of Russia in 2006 made it possible to cut this Gordian knot of conflict of interest and investigations were finally taken away from the prosecutor’s office.

The problem, however, is that at the same time, the legislator essentially nullified the supervisory powers of the prosecutor’s office. Orders from the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation on strengthening prosecutorial supervision are not implemented under current legislation. Vital changes and additions are required to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and to the Federal Law of 17 January 1992 No.2202-1 “On the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation”. Developing a package of such changes and additions is not a difficult task for specialists: lawyers of the Moscow Helsinki Group or the Human Rights Council are able to do this.

2. Reform of the Internal Security Agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the FSB.

Who and which bodies will, in practice, carry out measures on the instruction of prosecutors to identify and thereafter investigate instances of arbitrariness committed by the police, the Investigative Committee, the FSB, the Federal Prison Service, the prosecutor’s office, the National Guard and the courts? The proposed answer to this question is intended to overcome both local cronyism and ‘departmental honour’. The specific proposals are:

2.1. All three Internal Security Agencies (of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the FSB) should be subordinated exclusively to the head offices of these departments so that even the heads of the corresponding departments in the regions of the Russian Federation do not know who is watching them, and to ensure that the investigations themselves are never conducted at the regional level but are carried out by the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the FSB. Such a reform of the Internal Security Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, intended to overcome regional cronyism in the fight against corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself, was proposed in 2009 by then Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev. Unfortunately, this was not supported by his colleagues in the Ministry leadership.

2.2. By law endow the Internal Security Agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the FSB with powers and responsibilities for the implementation of investigations and interrogations in relation to violations of the law in associated agencies, the Penitentiary Service, the prosecutors’ office and the courts. For example, a complaint about the use of torture by investigators of the Investigative Committee should – on instruction from the prosecutor’s office – be checked and investigated by investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the FSB, etc. Such a practice would make it impossible to conceal crimes for the sake of the notorious ‘departmental honour.’

3. Ensuring the independence of judicial proceedings, protection of judges from unlawful extra-procedural pressure.

In addition to the well-known measures aimed at addressing this most important task of state-building in the Russian Federation, it is proposed, based on global experience, to establish a nationwide ‘hot line’ for judges, through which judges conducting specific trials, as well as the chairpersons of district and regional courts, must immediately (within a very short time limit prescribed by law) report every attempt to exert unlawful pressure on them.

The law should establish severe sanctions (up to life-long disqualification) for those judges and court chairpersons who fail to carry out this obligation and to report in a timely manner via the Hotline any attempt at illegal pressure. The receiving operator of information on the hotline could, for example, be a section of the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which in turn would be authorized and obliged to pass the information received for inspection and investigation to the Interior Ministry, the Investigative Committee or the FSB. For example, if a complaint is received from a judge about unlawful pressure in a case where the charges are presented by the Investigative Committee of Russia, the consideration and, if necessary, investigation of the complaint is carried out by the Interior Ministry or the FSB, and so on.

* included in the register of foreign agents

Additional materials on these issues:

15 November2021

MHG calls on the prosecutor’s office to withdraw its lawsuit to liquidate Memorial*:

https://echo.msk.ru/blog/moscowhelsinkigroup/2936198-echo/

20 November 2021

On the MHG’s Open Letter to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the lawsuit to liquidate Memorial* as threatening the country with a ‘cytokine storm,’ possible measures to prevent torture and other crimes by so-called ‘werewolves in uniform’:

https://tvrain.ru/teleshow/vechernee_shou/my_bemsja_za_rossiju_za_ee_buduschee-542353/

10 June 2021

On the eve of the Geneva Summit: Request to stop criminal prosecutions for nonviolent acts and to free political prisoners!

https://echo.msk.ru/blog/baltshuler/2852592-echo/

20 April 2021

On the eve of Sakharov’s 100th birthday: Three kinds of monopoly that rob Russia of its future and the main lesson of Andrei Sakharov:

https://echo.msk.ru/blog/baltshuler/2825220-echo/

29 November 2021 Ekho Moskvy,

‘Postflight Analysis’ with Boris Altshuler:

https://echo.msk.ru/programs/razbor_poleta/2941300-echo/

Translated by Simon Cosgrove and Nathalie Corbett