23 January 2007, 22:43
EU diplomats were not let into the courtroom where the "Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship" was banned
"Our consciousness before Russia that we respect is clean. We have done everything for the country to preserve its dignity, but its authorities have smashed us down the pavement," Oksana Chelysheva, deputy executive director of the "Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship" (SRChF), gave her comments to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" on the today's decision of the RF Supreme Court to uphold the verdict of the Nizhni Novgorod Regional Court to liquidate the organization.
The observers of the court session were representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), European Commission and ten embassies of western countries, including the USA, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Lithuania. "They have all become witnesses of justice profanation," Ms. Chelysheva has stated. "They even did not try to hide anything. Moreover, they tried not to let diplomats into the courtroom." The motive was the absence of places for seating in the room.
In Ms. Chelysheva's words, when the SRChF party in the proceedings and the European diplomats came up to the room, where the consideration of the cassation complaint of the Society was to start, a representative of the court (a court marshal, most probably) appeared before them and declared that many of the visitors would have to wait for the verdict in the corridor, since the room was small and partially full. However, the PACE observers said: "We are slim people and find the place."
Advocate Anna Stavitskaya, who represented the interests of the Society at the supreme judicial instance of the country, has told the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" that now the SRChF intends to seek justice at the European Court for Human Rights.
Author: Vyacheslav Feraposhkin, CK correspondent
