Killings On 10/7 journalist Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev was shot dead in Makhachkala, Dagestan. On 23/7 enviromentalist Igor Sapatov was shot dead in a village near Kazan. Pussy Riot On 24/7 a Perm court rejected Maria Alekhina’s request for parole. On 26/7 the Supreme Court of Mordovia rejected Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s parole appeal. Yukos On 5/7 Moscow City Court rejected a second appeal filed by Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin against the sentences of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. On 16/7, the Investigative Committee questioned Ella Pamfilova, ex-chair of the presidential human rights council, in a probe into an independent report on the Yukos trial. On 25/7 the European Court of Human Rights for a second time ruled against Russia for the treatment and trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Right of association On 9/7 the Prosecutor General said 215 NGOs had refused to register as ‘foreign agents’; on 10/7 he said there had been over 500 violations. On 19/7 the Prosecutor General's Office put forward amendments to the ‘foreign agents’ law defining political activity as 'activity aimed at gaining political power.' On 15/7 Golos lodged an appeal against the Justice Ministry’s decision to suspend its operations. On 19/7 the tax inspectorate alleged Golos owed 2.28 million roubles in unpaid taxes. On 8/7 the Perm Pilorama Civic Forum was cancelled after the regional government cut funding. Perm magistrates courts dismissed prosecutions of three NGOs for failing to register as foreign agents: against Perm Civic Chamber (on 17/7); against Grani Centre (on 17/7); and against Perm Human Rights Centre (on 18/7). On 30/7 Perm region prosecutor’s office appealed against these rulings. On 26/7 St. Petersburg prosecutors appealed a court ruling acquitting Memorial Anti-Discrimination Centre of failing to register as a foreign agent. LGBT rights On 5/7 President Putin signed a law banning the adoption of children by same-sex couples. On 14/7 police detained and charged five opposition activists on Red Square for organizing an unsanctioned demonstration against anti-gay laws. On 23/7 Russian migration authorities banned four Dutch nationals, detained on 21/7 for making a film about gay rights, from entering Russia for three years. On 29/7 Elena Mizulina, head of the State Duma's Committee on Family, Women and Children, and her first deputy, asked prosecutors to charge gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev for his Twitter remarks on the "gay propaganda law" they considered rude and offensive. Aleksei Navalny On 9/7 investigators seized documents at the offices of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. On 10/7 Navalny registered as a candidate in September's Moscow mayoral elections. On 18/7 Navalny was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison in a trial many believe was politically motivated. On the night of 18-19/7, police detained between 156 and 254 people at protest rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg against the jailing of Navalny. On 19/7 Navalny was freed from jail pending appeal. Other cases On 4/7 Memorial said in a statement that the so-called ‘Bolotnaya trial’ was politically motivated. On 22/7 riot police officer Aleksandr Kazmin declined to testify in court against a protestor, Mikhail Kosenko, charged with attacking him at the Bolotnaya protest on 6 May 2012. On 11/7 a Moscow court ruled that the late Sergei Magnitsky and his employer, William Browder, were guilty of tax fraud. Browder was sentenced in absentia to nine years. On 26/7 Interpol rejected a second request by Russia for the arrest and extradition of Browder. On 24/7 the alleged killers of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who claim they are innocent, went on trial in Moscow. Her family boycotted proceedings because they said the court had chosen the jury without asking them and rushed the trial date. |
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