The ECHR awarded compensation to Oleg Orlov and the Memorial Human Rights Center due to persecution after speaking about Kadyrov

The European Court of Human Rights declared unlawful the persecution of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" and a member of the Council of the organization Oleg Orlov in connection with his statement about the murder of Natalia Estemirova in Chechnya. This was reported on the Memorial HRC website.

The ECHR recognized that Russia violated Article 10 (the right to freedom of speech) of the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered to pay Memorial 5,060 euros and Orlov 3,750 euros, as well as 1,500 euros for legal costs .

“In today's ruling, the ECHR recalled that politicians and civil servants acting in an official capacity are subject to a wider range of acceptable criticism than private individuals. When discussing issues of public interest, the level of protection of freedom of speech is especially high, and the possibilities for the authorities to interfere are severely limited,” writes Memorial Human Rights Center.

Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Grozny branch of the HRC Memorial, was found dead on July 15, 2009. On that day, Memorial Human Rights Center published a statement on its website that included the words of Oleg Orlov, at that time the Chairman of the Council of the organization.

“I know, I am sure who is guilty of the murder of Natasha Estemirova. We all know this person. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov, he is the President of the Chechen Republic,” Oleg Orlov said. - Ramzan has already threatened Natalia, insulted her, considered her his personal enemy. We do not know if he gave the order himself or if his closest associates did it to please his superiors. And President Medvedev, apparently, is satisfied with the killer as the head of one of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

In October 2009, a Russian court granted Ramzan Kadyrov's claim for the protection of honor and dignity against Orlov and Memorial. The human rights activist was ordered to pay the plaintiff 20,000 rubles, and Memorial - 50,000 rubles.

Shortly thereafter, a criminal case was opened against Orlov for libel (part 3 of article 129 of the Criminal Code), but in the summer of 2011 he was acquitted due to the lack of corpus delicti. The court then recognized that Orlov's words did not contain deliberately false statements and he did not talk about personal participation in the organization of Estemirova's murder.

The prosecution appealed the court's decision, but the case was soon dismissed due to the decriminalization of the libel article of the Criminal Code.

In its decision, the ECtHR noted that it is necessary to distinguish between value judgments and facts. Thus, the trial court did not establish whether Orlov's statements represented value judgments that were not subject to proof and therefore did not claim the status of fact.