30 November 2021, 16:23
Court rejects "Memorial" defence's motion to summon experts
The Moscow City Court has refused to summon the prosecution experts to the session and to admit the public and journalists to the trial. It was decided to continue the preliminary hearing on the case of liquidating the "Memorial"* on December 16.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 8, the Moscow Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit to liquidate the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", claiming that the Centre was justifying extremism and terrorism. On November 23, at a preliminary court session, the claimant's representative was unable to explain on what grounds the prosecutor's inspection of the Centre was carried out. Ilya Novikov, an advocate, asked to summon the experts who had drawn up a certificate for the lawsuit on liquidation of the HRC "Memorial".
The judge has rejected the defence's motion to summon the experts to the session. He also did not allow making the session open, referring to the restrictions introduced because of coronavirus.
In parallel, since November 25, the Russian Supreme Court (SC) is running the consideration of the lawsuit on liquidation of the "International Memorial". The SC is considering the case formally, without comparing the scale of the violations imputed to the organization with the significance of its work, Oleg Orlov, a human rights defender, has noted. The closure of the "Memorials" will seriously harm the defence of human rights in Northern Caucasus, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists assert.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 29, 2021 at 05:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: CK correspondent
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