Rights defenders criticize the Chechen SC's decision on MIA's lawsuit

The decision of the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya on the lawsuit of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) against the "Civil Assistance" Committee, "Novaya Gazeta" and Ramazan Djalaldinov will be appealed against, the rights defendants have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 9, the Supreme Court of Chechnya upheld the decision of the Shatoi District Court stating that the "Civil Assistance" Committee, Ramazan Djalaldinov and "Novaya Gazeta" had disgraced the reputation of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

According to Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the "Civil Assistance" Committee, the SC's decision was predictable. She has also noted that she "defended her interests at the trial by herself."

"The first thing I insisted on was that the 'Civil Assistance' Committee has nothing to do with this issue at all. The text was posted in my personal Facebook page, which is not the official page of the Committee's Chair," Ms Gannushkina told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She has added that she plans to file a cassation appeal against the Chechen SC's decision.

Combining together the claims against Djalaldinov, Gannushkina and "Novaya Gazeta" was not justified by the law, said Oleg Orlov, a rights defender, who was present at the session.

"Djalaldinov is a source of information, not a distributor thereof in any way. This is a very dangerous practice. Thus, any person, who informs a journalist about illegal actions against him, can be added to a lawsuit as a defendant," Mr Orlov said.

Let us remind you that the MIA lodged the above claim after the post of Svetlana Gannushkina (Chair of the Committee) on the in Facebook and Elena Milashina's article in the "Novaya Gazeta". The materials covered the fate of the above Ramazan Djalaldinov.

In April 2016, Ramazan Djalaldinov, a Kenkhi villager, applied to President Putin with a complaint about corruption in Chechnya; later, he was persecuted and disappeared in November 2016. On November 10, Ramazan Djalaldinov contacted the rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina, explaining that he was forced to leave his village after they had brought him and his wife Nazirat to Grozny to meet Apti Alaudinov, the First Deputy Interior Minister of Chechnya. As Gannushkina wrote in her Facebook page, Djalaldinov told her that he had faced threats; they took away his passport and mobile phone, and the village itself was in fact "taken under siege."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.