Today, on the 17 of August 2007, at 9:40 in Nizhny Novgorod regional court is examined the appeal of the criminal-executive inspection of Nizhegorodsky district, which claims to add to the commitment, imposed on the director of the society of Russian-Chechen friendship, Stanislav Dmitrievsky, because of his conditional sentence. According to Mr. Dmitrievsky, the inspection, at the direction of the Prosecutor’s office of Nizhegorodsky district, asks the court to charge him with an additional duty of the prohibition of administrative violations.

In April 2007 Mr. Dmitrievsky acted as an organizer and active participant of street processions of the united opposition – “The Marches of the Dissenters”, that were not sanctioned by the authorities. In connection with that the world court of the judicial district #1 of the Nizhegorodsky district issued two decrees (dated June 5 and 6 2007) to bring the applicant to administrative responsibility. That is why, basing on Article 190 part 1 of the RF Criminal-Executive Code, the inspector of inter-district criminal-executive inspection #3 of Nizhegorodsky district Marina Zaitseva issued the applicant a written warning of the possibility to annul the conditional sentence. Notwithstanding the law the inspection officials refused to give Mr. Dmitrievsky the warning. Thus, he was unable to appeal to court. Now a new stage of pressure started, and it may lead to the replacement of the conditional sentence with a real imprisonment, in case Mr. Dmitrievsky neglects the commitments imposed on him and continues to participate in opposition actions that are not sanctioned by the authorities. However, the result will be the same in case of any other administrative violations, for example, crossing the road in a wrong place.

Dmitrievsky himself believes that “These actions of the Prosecutor’s Office are aimed at two results – first, to limit his participation in social and political life, second, to create the conditions necessary to imprison him. It is well known, that the fabrication of administrative materials is widely practiced by the law-enforcement agencies in case they find it necessary to detain a person without legal basis. It was widely used while suppressing the “Marches of the Dissenters”, when large numbers of people were taken down from trains and presented fabricated accusations in hooliganism based on police reports”.

You may remember that on 3 February 2007 the Sovetsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod sentenced Mr. Dmitrievsky to two years’ conditional imprisonment on four years’ probation for the publication of the statements of the leaders of unacknowledged Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Akhmed Zakaev and Aslan Maskhadov, with calls for peaceful settlement of disputes in Chechnia and with keen criticism of Russian authorities. On the matter Mr. Dmitrievsky submitted a complaint to the European Court. The lawyers of the Committee Against Torture are helping him to prepare the copmplaint and are also representing Mr. Dmitrievsky in the

European Court in Strasbourg. The case was communicated in terms of priority concerning two Articles of the European Convention – 6 (the right to a fair trial) and 10 (the right to freedom of expression). The Russian Federation answered the court questions on this case on the 14 June 2007, and the applicant also submitted his memo to court on 14 August 2007. The European Court is planning to hold a compact procedure,  at the same time to solve the question of the acceptability of the complaint, and to deliver a judgement on merits.