General Prosecutor’s Office files a claim to liquidate “International Memorial”*

The Supreme Court of Russia notified the NGO “International Memorial”* about the consideration of the claim filed by the General Prosecutor’s Office with a request to liquidate the NGO due to the lack of marking on the status of a foreign agent. Human rights defenders considered the claim filed by the General Prosecutor’s Office a political decision.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that after an unscheduled inspection carried out in March 2013, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office requested the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* to register as a foreign agent. The NGO considered mistaken the conclusions of the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, which saw a political nature in the NGO’s activities. The human rights defenders unsuccessfully tried to challenge the prosecutors’ claim in court.

Today, the International Historical, Educational, Charitable, and Human Rights Society “Memorial”* (“International Memorial”*) received a notification from the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia that the General Prosecutor’s Office filed a claim to liquidate the NGO for regular violations of the law on “foreign agents” in the absence of an appropriate marking of the NGO’s materials). The court hearing will take place on November 25, the HRC “Memorial”* reports today.

The “International Memorial”* is a movement which primary goal was to preserve the memory of political repression in the country’s recent past. Now it is a community of dozens of organizations in Russia (including in South and Northern Caucasus), Belarus, Germany, Italy, France, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Ukraine, engaged in research, human rights, and educational activities.

“We have repeatedly declared that the law was originally conceived as a tool to crack down on independent organizations, and we insisted that it should be abolished. We believe that there is no legal basis for the liquidation of the ‘International Memorial’*.” “This is a political decision to destroy the ‘Memorial’, an organization engaged in preserving the history of political repression and the protecting human rights,” the human rights defenders declare on the organization’s website.

* The organization is included by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Russia in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 11, 2021 at 07:14 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.