Amnesty International is calling for the immediate release of three Russian opposition activists detained in Moscow after a peaceful and sanctioned rally calling for freedom of assembly and later sentenced to administrative detention.

Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and opposition activists, Ilia Iashin and Konstantin Kosiakin were among about 70 arrested at the rally in Central Moscow on 31 December 2010, the latest in a regular series of rallies in the Russian capital demanding to uphold the right to freedom of assembly.

They were sentenced on 2 January 2011 to 15, five and 10 days of administrative detention respectively for allegedly failing to follow police instruction, despite eyewitnesses reporting that they had not obstructed police officers.

“Yet again, the Russian authorities have failed in their obligations to protect the rights to freedom of assembly, a right guaranteed by the Russian Constitution” said Andrea Huber, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director.

“The organization considers them prisoners of conscience detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression”.

Amnesty International has also expressed concern at reports indicating that the trial failed to meet international standards of fairness. At the trial of Boris Nemtsov the judge did not grant his defence lawyers request to use video evidence that showed him being led away peacefully or to cross-examine two police officers.

The court reportedly based its guilty verdict on the statements of the two police officers and ignored the statements of thirteen defence witnesses.

Some of the detained protesters also reported fabrication by police officers of the circumstances of their detentions.

“The Russian authorities consistently disregard the standards of fair trials thus turning them in kangaroo courts which dispense politically motivated sentences,” Andrea Huber said.

For nearly two years, pro-freedom of assembly demonstrators gather in Triumfalnaya Square, in the centre of Moscow, on the 31st day of the month to highlight Article 31 of the Russian constitution, which protects the right to freedom of assembly.

In October 2010 the new mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin sanctioned the protest for the first time. Another, unsanctioned, protest reportedly took place on the other side of the square.

Protesters called for freedom of expression and assembly and called for the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to stand down. They also held placards calling for the release of prominent businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin who was convicted on 27 December 2010 of money-laundering.

More than 50 people were arrested at a similar rally in St Petersburg, which had not been sanctioned.

read more

Amnesty International is calling on the Moscow courts to overturn today’s conviction of prominent businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky for money-laundering, on the grounds that his trial was unfair and appeared politically motivated.

“The Russian authorities’ consistent disregard for due process in this trial only strengthens the impression that this second round of convictions has been politically motivated” said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty International’s Director for Europe and Central Asia.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky became one of Russia’s richest and most powerful businessmen after acquiring former Soviet state industries in the 1990s, including the oil company YUKOS. He was arrested in 2003, and has now faced two trials with his former business associate Platon Lebedev – the first for tax evasion and fraud, and the second for embezzlement and money laundering.

Defence lawyers have been unable to cross-examine witnesses, and defence witnesses have been prevented from taking the stand.

Authorities have pressured and harassed former colleagues to testify for the prosecution.

Other breaches of legal process have included the failure of the court to order the prosecution to disclose information, and irregularities in the early stages of the investigation that hindered the rights of the accused to prepare their defence.

“All evidence points to a pattern of political motives and interference having obstructed justice in this case. The Moscow City Court must overturn this unfair conviction, to restore faith in the independence of Russia’s legal system,” said Nicola Duckworth.

Numerous procedural violations and widespread allegations of political motivations also marred Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev’s first trial.

The European Court of Human Rights is considering allegations that their first trial was politically motivated, and ruled on 25 October 2007 that repeated irregularities in the pre-trial detention of Platon Lebedev in the run up to his first trial violated his rights.

read more

International artists and writers have joined forces to write an open letter to Russia’s President Medvedev, expressing their deep concern at the criminal charges being brought against the two men.

Intended to promote a debate on censorship and contemporary art in Russia, the exhibition gathered together works that had been refused inclusion at various exhibitions in Russia during 2006.

The open letter, signed by such artists and writers as Irish writer Roddy Doyle, UK playwright Tom Stoppard, French journalist and essayist Galia Ackerman and Russian artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, said:

“We are concerned and disturbed that in bringing the charges against both men that the guarantee of freedom of expression in the Russian Constitution is being set at naught. International human rights law does not permit, still less require, freedom of expression to be restricted or prohibited simply on the grounds that some people find the views expressed offensive.”

“Russia is a secular state where, under current law, everyone is guaranteed freedom of religious or atheist ‘belief’ and where everyone can freely choose, have or disseminate religious or atheist views. International law does not permit restrictions of the expression of opinions or beliefs, which stray from the religious beliefs of the majority of the population or the State-prescribed religion.”

The letter concluded: “We firmly believe that Andrei Yerofeev and Yurii Samodurov should not be prosecuted and we call upon the Russian authorities to respect their right to freedom of expression.”

Amnesty International has called on the Russian authorities to respect the right to freedom of expression and to stop the criminal prosecution of Yurii Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev.

The full list of signatories to the open letter is:

Galia Ackerman (journalist and essayist, France)
Roddy Doyle(writer, Ireland)
Boris Groys (professor and art critic, Germany)
Enrique Juncosa (Director of Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland)
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov(Russian artists, USA)
Julia Kisina (artist, Ukraine)
Azar Nafisi (academic and writer, Iran)
Peter Sis (writer, artist, illustrator, Czech Republic)
Tom Stoppard (playwright, UK)
Ludmila Ulitskaya (writer, Russia)