Extremist Tribunal for Chechnya

In the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region, a trial has begun to recognize the monograph edited by human rights activist Stanislav Dmitrievsky, “ The International Tribunal for Chechnya ,” as extremist material. The Center for Countering Extremism ordered an examination of the two-volume book. Experts Larisa Teslenko (philologist, lawyer) and Irina Zhiganova (philologist, psychologist) came to the conclusion that the book contains “humiliation of a group of people belonging to the Russian and Chechen national groups.” Dmitrievsky told PublicPost that the police are trying to curry favor by banning a book that personally threatens Vladimir Putin with an international tribunal. Nizhny Novgorod human rights activist Igor Kalyapin does not agree with Dmitrievsky, who considers this case a disservice to Putin on the part of Center “E”.

About the book

Work on the book “The International Tribunal for Chechnya” was carried out by a group of human rights activists; a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (USA) was allocated for the book. A collective monograph by Oksana Chelysheva, Bogdan Gvareli and Stanislav Dmitrievsky was published under the editorship of the latter. The book was published in Finland by Aki Kaurismäki, and in Russia it was published as a manuscript, without indicating the publisher and bibliographic codes. The book was published on the Internet on the Novaya Gazeta website . The book is addressed to all those who are interested in the resolution of armed conflicts, international criminal justice, and the fight against international crimes and impunity. Scientific publication. The book has been translated into English and will soon be published by Oxford University.

Initially, Dmitrievsky was going to write a book together with Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya; she participated in editing the first chapters of the book. Work on the book was stopped by her murder. The book, from the point of view of international law, analyzes the events that took place in Chechnya during the first and second Chechen wars and concludes that crimes committed during the armed conflict in Chechnya are international, have no statute of limitations and can be prosecuted by international and foreign courts. A circle of people who can be considered suspects is also outlined, including Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin.

The book “The International Tribunal for Chechnya” became of interest to Center “E” immediately after its presentation in Moscow in 2009. Then, at a traffic police post on the way from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, the car of the chairman of the “Committee against Torture” Igor Kalyapin was stopped, employees of Center “E” conducted a search and seized several copies of the book. Kalyapin filed a lawsuit against the operatives, claiming that the seizure of non-prohibited literature was illegal, and won the case - the court ruled that Center “E” was obliged to return the books. However, they have not yet been returned. As it turned out, due to the fact that the books were submitted for examination for the presence of extremism in them, senior lieutenant of the "Eshniks" Sergei Filimonov .

Experts of the Volga Regional Center for Forensic Science Larisa Teslenko and Irina Zhiganova, in addition to the conclusion that the book contains “humiliation of the national group of Russians and Chechens,” in their study note that “the predominance of the red color of the cover should be perceived as a hidden call to action (read the contents of this book)”, and also that the constant reference of the book’s authors to historical references, international acts, and documents is “a special propaganda technique.” Although the experts were not asked whether the book contained criticism of the Russian authorities, they noted it on their own initiative: “the text contains a negative assessment of the policies of the Russian authorities.”

After receiving the results of the examination, Center “E” operative Alexey Trifonov turned to the prosecutor with a request to send a claim for recognition of Dmitrievsky’s book to the court.

On December 6, 2012, the first hearing on this case took place. Stanislav Dmitrievsky's lawyer petitioned that a representative of Novaya Gazeta be admitted to the court as an interested party, since the book was published on the publication's website. The assistant prosecutor said that Novaya Gazeta is no different from any file hosting service, and after the book is possibly declared extremist and removed from the site, Novaya Gazeta’s rights will not be violated. Judge Olga Khaidukova supported the prosecutor's position and rejected the petition. Deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Sergei Sokolov explained to PublicPost that they have not yet decided how to behave in relation to this court, but are ready to defend their interests if they are declared as defendants. “We have not received any papers from the Dzerzhinsky court, our status is not clear to us. Therefore, we have not yet decided how to behave. Dmitrievsky’s book contains articles by Anna Politkovskaya, and if she is declared extremist, this, of course, will affect the interests of her relatives and us “I am sure that the lawyers of Anna’s relatives will challenge this decision. But for now everything is shaky and unclear, and we are trying to develop a strategy,” Sokolov said.

Human rights activist Stanislav Dmitrievsky told PublicPost that all the accusations against the book were fabricated, and the examination was carried out by experts well known to Center “E”, and it cannot be called independent.

“Our book is a ready-made, legally sound verdict on Vladimir Putin and his entourage. I think this is the real reason for the persecution. We will seek an independent examination with the involvement of historians and international lawyers. We will challenge it in the next court hearings and demand an independent examination,” - said Dmitrievsky.

The incitement of discord and hatred found by experts Teslenko and Zhiganova in the book refers to a selection of quotes from websites of the time, which the human rights activist made to illustrate nationalist hysteria in the media during the armed conflict in Chechnya. “I condemn these quotes right there in the text, but experts ignore it. You can also accuse Alla Gerber of denying the Holocaust when she talks about the antics of the Nazis, or accuse a scientist of promoting Nazism for quoting from Mein Kampf,” says Dmitrievsky .

The chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod human rights organization "Committee against Torture" Igor Kalyapin told PublicPost that he considers the case absurd and advised not to look for logic in the actions of the operatives of the Nizhny Novgorod Center "E", whom he called "gopniks in uniform." Kalyapin believes that the initiative to ban the book came from them, and no one from Moscow asked them to do this. “Putin doesn’t need protection from Center “E” at all in this matter. This would be such a disservice to him. It’s just that the “eschniks” have a grudge against Dmitrievsky, they are developing him, so they decided to approach him from this side and ban his work,” said the human rights activist.

PublicPost was unable to get a comment from representatives of Nizhny Novgorod anti-extremists.

The next hearing in the case of the book by Stanislav Dmitrievsky will be held in the Dzerzhinsky court on December 18.