Moscow Helsinki Group sentenced

The Moscow City Court liquidated one of the oldest Russian human rights organizations, the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG). According to a Business FM correspondent, in this way the court satisfied the claim of the capital department of the Ministry of Justice.

“The decision of the court can be appealed to the First Court of Appeal within a month from the date of the final decision by the court,” Judge Mikhail Kazakov announced the decision.

Representatives of the defendant asked to suspend the process until the Gagarin Court considers the claim of the Moscow Helsinki Group, in which the human rights organization challenged the unscheduled inspection conducted from November 8 to 28, 2022. It covered the period of the organization’s activities from 2019 to 2021 and revealed violations that formed the basis of the claim for the liquidation of the MHG. The defendants in it were the department of the Ministry of Justice and the Moscow prosecutor’s office. The organization’s lawyers explained that the Gagarin court refused to accept the claim, and now the organization has filed a new one, with some “extended circumstances”. However, Judge Mikhail Kazakov did not postpone the trial.

The reason for the lawsuit was claims that the organization carried out activities outside the Moscow region, the organization’s charter does not comply with current legal requirements, and during an unscheduled inspection by the Ministry of Justice, a complete package of required documents was not provided. The representative of the Ministry of Justice in court explained that the MHG held 11 events outside of Moscow.

“A violation of the frequency of events was also established, namely, according to the charter, meetings are held at least twice a year. In view of the foregoing, the main department insists on the need to apply a response measure to the organization – liquidation, ”said the lawyer.

The department considered it impossible to eliminate the violations. “Holding events outside of Moscow is a fait accompli,” he said.

When asked by the judge whether the defendant had been given time to eliminate the violations, another representative of the Ministry of Justice answered in the negative.

In turn, the representatives of the defendant asked to reject the claim. They called the claims formal and far-fetched. They argued that the inspection “is illegal”, and therefore “all the evidence obtained as a result of it is inadmissible.”

According to the organization’s lawyers, the check was carried out on the basis of the requirements of the Moscow prosecutor’s office, which monitored the Internet, establishing that the MHG had committed a violation of the law. “The conduct of such a study by the prosecutor’s office is not included in the list of grounds that may be a reason for an unscheduled inspection,” said lawyer Ilya Sidorov, one of the seven representatives of the MHG, led by the legendary Russian lawyer Henry Reznik. He added that the scheduled inspection was scheduled only for 2023.

According to the defendant, “there were no grounds” for an unscheduled inspection, and the prosecutor’s office went beyond its competence. Valery Borshchev, co-chairman of the organization, noted that the Moscow Helsinki Group is the oldest human rights organization in the country, and from the first days of its existence it has carried out extensive consolidating work. “Therefore, the claims made are absurd. Human rights are extraterritorial – this is the ABC,” said the human rights activist.

He reproached the procedural opponents for “destroying the human rights movement.” Borshchev believes that the liquidation of the organization will be a blow to the human rights movement not only in Russia, but throughout the world. “I don’t understand how it is possible to destroy with such ease what was built with such efforts by generations of people who died in the camps. This is a global phenomenon, and you are destroying it,” the human rights activist noted.

Another representative of the MHG, Vice-President of the Moscow Chamber of Lawyers Henry Reznik, in turn, called the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice absurd. He noted that “in recent years, the state has increased pressure on civil society” and this is not the first lawsuit demanding the liquidation of a public organization. “It all started with the Foreign Agents Act, which was legal madness,” the lawyer said. – He made everything toxic, all the money from abroad, including from funds that have nothing to do with the state. And then it went on: “Memorial” (recognized as an NGO-foreign agent) was asked to recognize its own activity as political, although human rights activity by definition is not such. When Memorial refused to declare itself a foreign agent, liquidation followed,” Reznik recalled. He recalled that the MHG refused foreign funding. He called the claims of the Ministry of Justice to the organization “ridiculous and artificially created.” “I beg you, leave the officials of the Ministry of Justice alone with this shame, reject this absolutely absurd lawsuit that has nothing to do with law. Judge by law and conscience, and not by political conjuncture,” he appealed to the court.

But the presiding judge, having stayed in the deliberation room for 15 minutes, satisfied the claim of the capital’s department of the Ministry of Justice. Lawyers for the Moscow Helsinki Group said they would appeal the decision.

Earlier, on December 25, MHG lawyers filed a challenge to judge Mikhail Kazakov, who did not allow all lawyers to familiarize themselves with the case materials, but he did not accept it.

Kazakov is known for the fact that on December 29, 2021, he decided to liquidate another oldest Russian public organization, the Memorial human rights center (recognized as an NGO-foreign agent in Russia). Then the court satisfied the claim of the capital’s prosecutor’s office.

Earlier, on December 28, 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia liquidated the International Memorial, also recognized as an NGO-foreign agent. The reason for the appeal of the supervisory authority to the court was the lack of markings on the materials of the organization, as in the case of the human rights center of the same name.

The Moscow Helsinki Group was founded on May 12, 1976. The organizer and first head of the MHG was a Soviet physicist, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, dissident Yuri Orlov. From May 1996 until the end of her life (2018), the chairman of the MHG was human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva. She died at the age of 91. During her lifetime, she was a member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Russian Federation, as well as the President’s Council for the Development of Civil Society. After her death, three co-chairs were elected to the MHG. The main activity of the organization is the collection of information about the violation of human rights in the course of legal proceedings. The MHG has always covered the processes not only in Moscow, but also in other regions of Russia.