MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) – President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz on Tuesday expressed concern over the Russia's plans to liquidate the Memorial human rights organization.
"We are very worried about the measures, the Russian government wants to take against our Sakharov Laureate Memorial," Schulz said at a press conference, adding that "Memorial is the organization, administering the legacy of Andrei Sakharov, the man who gave the name [to the organization]".
On October 13, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Justice told RIA Novosti that the reason why the ministry had asked the country's top court to liquidate Memorial was that the organization had repeatedly and grossly violated the Russian law.
Earlier in October, the chief of Memorial's Moscow chapter said the society was going to appeal the suit at many court levels, including the Constitutional Court.
The Russian Ministry of Justice's lawsuit was registered in the Supreme Court on September, 24 and the hearing is scheduled for November, 13.
Founded in 1989 under the auspices of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov, Memorial has led focused on monitoring human rights in Russia and other post-Soviet countries.
