The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society is a non-governmental organization monitoring human rights violations in Chechnya and other regions of the North Caucasus, which publicizes alleged disappearances, executions, and torture in the region, and is supported by global human rights watchdog Amnesty International.
A regional court in central Russia ruled last October to close down the headquarters of the organization for tax violations and for holding illegal rallies. The court accused the organization of having extremist elements in their work.
"We agree with the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court's decision to close down the organization," the prosecutor said.
However, the head of the NGO, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, said the court's decision infringed on freedom of speech and association, and was based on his personal criminal records, which did not provide legal grounds for closing such an organization.
Dmitriyevsky was given a two-year suspended prison sentence in February 2006 on charges of instigating ethnic, national, and social hatred after publishing speeches by former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov and his envoy Akhmed Zakayev. The Kremlin has accused both men of terrorism, and Maskhadov was killed in a military operation in March 2005.
Dmitriyevsky stressed that the law on NGOs, which prohibits people convicted of extremist activities from being involved in public organizations and which the regional court had referred to, was enforced in April 2006, after he was found guilty.
The Russian government has faced criticism from Western leaders for restrictions imposed on rights groups and NGOs operating in the country, and the issue is often cited as an example of Russia's alleged backsliding on democracy. In particular, the April law imposed more stringent and complicated financial reporting and registration requirements for NGOs.
Anna Stavitskaya, Dmitriyevsky's lawyer, pledged to contest the decision to close down the organization in the European Court of Human Right in Strasbourg.
In June, Amnesty International declared Dmitriyevsky and another leader of Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Oksana Chelysheva, winners of AI's Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat, at the 15th annual U.K. Media Awards in London. The move was criticized by the Kremlin.
