Interfax. Monday, Feb. 23, 2004, 3:41 PM Moscow Time

MOSCOW. Feb 23 (Interfax) - Moscow police have detained the organizers of an unauthorized picket marking the anniversary of the exile of the Chechen people in 1944. Lev Ponomaryov, head of the all-Russian For Human Rights movement, told Interfax that he and another picketing organizer, Nikolai Khramov, head of the Russian Radicals movement, are being held at the Kitai Gorod police headquarters.

"Over 100 members of various organizations, in particular the For Human Rights movement, the Transnational Radical Party, and the Anti- Military Committee, assembled at the Solovetsky Stone today to lay flowers marking the anniversary of the Stalin- ordered deportation of the Chechens," Ponomaryov said.

The picketing involved about 50 people and lasted no more than 25 minutes, he said.

An official in police headquarters confirmed the detention of Ponomaryov and Khramov and said that a decision on how to proceed will be made within an hour.

The prefecture of Moscow's Central Administrative Area earlier suggested that the protesters stage their event outside the city center, so as not to interfere with events marking Defenders of the Fatherland Day, the official said.

The movement For Human Rights intends to appeal this decision in court

Ekho Moskvy, 23 February 2004 

People arrested at Chechen anniversary meeting in Moscow to appeal to Europe

[Presenter] Russia is marking Defender of the Fatherland Day today, 23 February. A festive salute has already resounded in Moscow. But today also marks another memorable date, the anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples in 1944. A meeting was held for this occasion in the capital, in Lubyanskaya Ploshchad [Lubyanka Square]. It had not been approved by the Moscow authorities. The organizers of the action and several other people at the meeting were detained by the police. True, it was not for long. Some time later, having threatened them with fines, they released them. The case involving the participants and organizers in the picket will be heard tomorrow [24 February] in the famous Basmanny court. Lev Ponomarev, one of the organizers of the action and head of the human rights movement, said in an interview to Ekho Moskvy that he does not hope for a not guilty verdict.

[Lev Ponomarev] If the court rules not in our favour, and that is quite possible, the more so because it is the Basmanny court that will be hearing our case. But we will naturally be taking the case as far as the European court and perhaps that is the necessary thing to do, to act correctly, because in the end the European court should rule most definitely in this regard, the more so as our lawyer is Karina Okopovna Moskalenko. She is simply one of the greatest specialists in mutual interaction with the European court.

[Presenter] Another organizer of the picket, the leader of the Russian Radicals, Nikolay Khramov, considers the actions of the police who detained people who were at the meeting to be unlawful. I'll add that material on administrative violation of the law was compiled on every person that was detained.

ECHR Mission Visits Georgia over Chechens' Case  

/Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2004-02-23 17:45:57     The delegation of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) pays a fact-finding visit to Georgia to studies the cases of 13 Chechens, who were arrested by Georgian border guards in August 2002.

After a hearing on 16 September 2003, the declared admissible the application lodged by 13 Chechens.

Five of them were immediately extradited to Russia. The applicants submit that their extradition to the Russian Federation, where capital punishment has not been abolished, exposes them to a real risk of death or torture. 

The fact-finding mission aims at taking evidence from the applicants who had been extradited to Russia and from those who are in custody in Georgia pending a decision on the extradition request made by the Russian Federation, and from witnesses.

The missions were scheduled for the last week of October 2003, however were adjourned due to the November 2 parliamentary elections in Georgia.

The Russian delegation led by official representative of the Russian Federation in the Strasbourg Court Pavel Laptev also arrived in Tbilisi to participate in the fact-finding mission. A fact-finding visit is also scheduled to the Russian Federation as well.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

2004-02-23 17:43    

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATES LEGALITY OF EXTRADITION OF 5 CHECHENS FROM GEORGIA TO RUSSIA

TBILISI, February 23, 2004. (RIA Novosti) -- In the Georgian Supreme court representatives of the Investigation department of the European Court of human rights are investigating legality of extradition of 5 Chechens from Georgia to Russia in September 2002.

Lia Mukhashavria, defense attorney of the Chechens stated to RIA Novosti: "Representatives of the European court are questioning all investigators of the General Prosecutor's office involved in the extradition case. In the next few days a meeting is expected to take place between Nugzar Gabrichidze, former Prosecutor General of Georgia on whose order 5 Chechens were extradited to Russia".

According to her, in the wake of his work in Tbilisi the representative of the European court will go to Russia to familiarize himself with the materials, which formed the basis for extradition.

In summer 2002 Georgian frontier guards detained 13 Chechens at the Chechen sector of the Russian-Georgian border for illegal state border crossing. The majority of detainees possessed firearms, which aggravated their guilt.

Later on the decision of the Georgian court 5 out of 13 Chechens were transferred to the Russian side on the basis of documents provided by the Russian General Prosecutor's office, which stated that the detained Chechens were involved in committing especially grave crimes on the territory of Russia. Nevertheless defense attorneys appealed the judgement of the Georgian court in the European court of human rights.

The Georgian court recognized two Chechens as Georgian citizens. One had a refugee status, which protected him from extradition. The Georgian court did not recognize guilt of other 5 Chechens and they were let free as evidence of their guilt was considered insufficient to justify their extradition.