Search at the Memorial declared illegal

On January 20, 2009, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg declared illegal the search conducted in December 2008 by investigators of the UPC at the Memorial Research Center.

The court also ruled to return all the materials seized during the search, but refused to give a legal assessment of the actions of the Investigative Committee.

Lawyer Ivan Pavlov does not exclude the possibility of filing a lawsuit with a court of general jurisdiction regarding the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation of "Memorial".

Recall that in December last year, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Anvar Azimov, spoke at the OSCE Permanent Council and said, in particular, that the authorities have good reason to believe that Memorial is involved in financing extremist activities (namely in the publication of the newspaper "New Petersburg").

Sources

• The prosecutor's office will return material evidence to human rights activists // Kommersant. 2009. January 21.