The Leninsky District Court of Perm again recognized the legality of initiating a criminal case against the ex-head of Perm Memorial, Robert Latypov. this Properm.ru reports .
His lawyer Inna Zhuravleva noted in the complaint that the law does not allow questions related to the assessment of the client’s actions to be presented to the expert. The expert conclusions made in March and May 2023, to which she refers, state that archival documents cannot be exported outside of Russia. Zhuravleva insisted that it was impossible to initiate a criminal case based on expert opinions.
Latypov is accused of attempted smuggling of cultural property (clause “c” of Part 2 of Article 226.1 of the Criminal Code with the use of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). The court considered Latypov's claim for the second time. On February 1, the Perm Regional Court overturned the decision to recognize as legal the initiation of a case against the man, which was passed in December 2023. The court made this decision on formal grounds: for the first time, another defendant in the case, Chairman of the Center for Historical Memory, Alexander Chernyshov, was not notified of the consideration of the petition.
During the re-examination, Chernyshov was notified of the meeting. He refused to participate in it, which allowed him to comply with the necessary formalities.
- In April 2022, the Ministry of Justice announced the forced liquidation of the Perm Memorial. In March and May 2023, ex-employees of the organization were searched as part of a case of attempted smuggling of cultural property (clause “c” of Part 2 of Article 226.1 of the Criminal Code with the use of Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code). According to the FSB, human rights activists tried to “smuggle Memorial documents that are of cultural and historical value from Russia to Germany.” Accused in the case are the ex-head of the Perm Memorial, Robert Latypov, who is wanted, and the chairman of the Center for Historical Memory, Alexander Chernyshov, who was imprisoned in a pre-trial detention center.