Please, find the English press-release of SIC "Memorial"
(Saint Petersburg) regarding the court decision on the search of December 4,
2008 below. Court ruled the search in SIC "Memorial" illegal
On
January 16, 19, 20 the Dzherzhinsky district court of
St Petersburg examined an application by lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who represents
interests of St Petersburg Scientific-Information Center "Memorial"
about the illegality and lack of grounds of a search, carried out on December 4
2008 in the office of the Center by personnel of the Investigative Committee
with the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation in St Petersburg. As a
result of the search hard discs of computers, which contained
databases on political repression of the Soviet era, and other
research conducted by the Center as well as working materials were confiscated.
The
search was carried out in compliance with the decision of investigator M.G. Kalaganov. He investigated the case about the publication, in the newspaper "Novy Peterburg," of an article, which, according to
investigation, incites, national hatred. Memorial immediately made a statement
about the absurdity of such claims.
During
the first hearing, on January 16 the court listened to the detailed application
of Pavlov, explanations of Kalaganov, the opinion of
the representative of the prosecutor's office (who fully supported the
investigator). Evidence was also
provided by witnesses and participants of the search - two Memorial
representatives, a witnesses, three representatives of law-enforcement
agencies, who carried out search, representatives of St Petersburg
Prosecution and lawyer I.T. Gabunija, who was called
on December 4 by Memorial for legal assistance during search, but was denied
access to the premises.
During
the second hearing on January 19 the court examined
two video records. One of them, which pictured an unsuccessful attempt of
lawyer Gabunija to enter the office, was made by a TV journalists Alexander Chizenko.
He was at
the office of Memorial during search. Another record - an operational record by
candid camera inside the office of the Center - was carried out during the
search by one of the representatives of investigative brigade. It was presented
by investigators in order to prove that the rights of Memorial were not
violated during search.
On
January 20 both sides- Memorial lawyer Pavlov and representatives of
Prosecutor's Office delivered final speeches. After a three hour break the
lawyer A.P. Shibakov announced his statement,
according to which the search in Memorial was acknowledged to be illegal and
the investigator was obliged to return all items
and documents confiscated during search. The court ruling runs that the
denial of access to a lawyer, who had, according to law, the right to represent
Memorial resulted in "significant violation of rights of the person whose
premises were searched".
The
court, however, did not acknowledge the decision of investigator Kalaganov to carry out a search groundlessly, which the
lawyer of Memorial insisted on. According to the court, operational materials
presented by investigator Kalaganov-results of an
outside observation of the office of Memorial, according to which the editor of
"Novy Peterburg"
had twice during
a year visited the office- were sufficient grounds for suspecting that
financial documents of the newspaper could have been stored at Memorial.
The
decision can be appealed within 10 days.
St
Petersburg Scientific-information Center Memorial (St Petersburg) is grateful
to everyone who supported our struggle for
return of the illegally confiscated materials. We are particularly grateful to
our international and Russian partners and colleagues, historians,
philologists, Slavists, other scholars who for over a
month demanded from the authorities that they returned our papers and
electronic archives. Without insistent pressure of the international academic
community the restoration of justice could have taken much longer.
At the
same time, SIC "Memorial" does not consider the case finalized. The
hard discs and other materials have not yet been returned, and the ruling of
court will be enforced in 10 days unless it is disputed in the city court by
the opposite side. Moreover, false accusations of Memorial, which were
verbalized by the officials were not refuted. This is
why we ask our colleagues and friends to continue
following the developments in the Memorial "search case"
Some
links to media related to the event of January 20 and other days:
http://www.polit.ru/news/2009/01/20/comment.popup.html
http://www.novayagazeta.spb.ru/2009/03/2
http://www.lenizdat.ru/a0/ru/pm1/c-1070627-0.html#1
http://www.spbtv.ru/new.html?newsid=2560
http://www.polit.ru/news/2009/01/20/nobel.popup.html
http://www.polit.ru/news/2009/01/20/victory.popup.html
http://www.polit.ru/news/2009/01/20/memo.popup.html
http://www.polit.ru/dossie/2009/01/18/letter.html
http://www.fontanka.ru/2009/01/19/127/
http://www.fontanka.ru/2009/01/19/026/
http://www.bia-news.ru/news/74069
http://www.bia-news.ru/news/73904
http://www.rtr.spb.ru/vesti/vesti_2009/news_detail_v.asp?id=334
*January 22, 2009*