A Russian court has ordered the abolition of the Memorial – SME.sk human rights organization

MOSCOW. Russia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the abolition of Memorial, a “systematic violation of the Foreign Agents Act.” Several Russian media and the AFP agency informed about it.

“The court has decided to terminate the activities of Memorial International and its regional branches,” the organization said on the social network Telegram.

Representatives of the International Memorial continue to deny the allegations, arguing that there is no legal reason to liquidate the organization. After the statement judgment they announced that they would appeal against the decision and, if necessary, turn to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Related article

Related article Russia wants to destroy an organization that is gathering evidence of Stalinism Read

Memorial deals with the history of political repression and the protection of human rights. For its activities and the attitudes of its representatives, it has been the focus of Russian authorities for years. Since 2016, the organization has been on the list of foreign agents and the courts have fined it several times for breaking the law.

This international historical, educational, charitable and human rights society was founded in 1992 in Moscow under the Memorial Association, which was founded in 1987 and has many regional organizations and groups.

In year 1989 they all merged into the union-wide Memorial Society, with its renowned scientist, Soviet dissident academician Andrei Sakharov, as its honorary chairman.

The Memorial has been supported in recent weeks by dozens of Russian and international organizations and politicians, scientists and cultural figures. Among them were several Nobel Peace Prize winners, including the editor-in-chief of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, Dmitry Muratov.

He, along with the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, published a statement in which they both warned against closing the Memorial and said the case “caused anxiety and concern in the country.”

The designation “foreign agent” is granted by the Russian authorities under the 2012 law, according to which it is used by every non-governmental organization receiving money from abroad. In 2017, the law was extended to the media and, from 2019, to individual journalists and activists.