20 January 2017

Source: HRO.org

A lawsuit for the recovery of 2.4 million roubles from director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, Natalya Sharina – who has been charged with extremism and is under house arrest – has been brought at the Meshansky district court of Moscow, according to her lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, on his Facebook page from 19 January 2017, Rosbalt reports.

“At the hearing today, several witnesses for the prosecution were supposed to be questioned, but something went wrong - none of them appeared. However, the cherry on the cake was that the Library itself opted to bring a civil lawsuit for 2.4 million roubles against Sharina,” he remarked. “I will talk about the details of this and previous hearings later. What I can say is the bottom line is this. For some reason, the prosecution witnesses have stubbornly opted to testify in favour of Sharina, and even a Library lawsuit will not ruin that.”

Natalya Sharina has been charged under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (‘Inciting Hatred or Enmity, or Humiliation of Human Dignity’). She has been under house arrest since 30 October 2015.

According to the prosecution, in 2011-2015, Natalya Sharina violated the law ‘On Countering Extremist Activities,’ by disseminating books by Dmitry Korchinsky, recognised by a court as extremist and banned for use, among library users.

Memorial Human Rights Centre (Moscow) has declared Natalya Sharina a political prisoner.

For more on the case of Natalya Sharina, read HERE

Transalated by Nathalie Corbett