{"id":3936,"date":"2020-10-21T23:20:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T21:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.human-rights-year.com\/?p=3936"},"modified":"2020-12-29T23:22:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T22:22:23","slug":"the-prosecution-of-nizhny-novgorod-opposition-activist-mikhail-iosilevich-for-involvement-with-an-undesirable-organisation-is-politically-motivated-and-unlawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.human-rights-year.com\/de\/2020\/10\/21\/the-prosecution-of-nizhny-novgorod-opposition-activist-mikhail-iosilevich-for-involvement-with-an-undesirable-organisation-is-politically-motivated-and-unlawful\/","title":{"rendered":"The prosecution of Nizhny Novgorod opposition activist Mikhail Iosilevich for involvement with an \u2018undesirable organisation\u2019 is politically motivated and unlawful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memorial Human Rights Centre considers the prosecution of\u00a0Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur and activist Mikhail Iosilevich politically motivated. The prosecution is\u00a0intended to\u00a0force him to\u00a0cease or\u00a0change the nature of\u00a0his public activities as\u00a0a\u00a0critic of\u00a0the current authorities solely because of\u00a0his political beliefs and his non-violent exercise of\u00a0freedom of\u00a0thought, freedom of\u00a0expression and information, freedom of\u00a0peaceful assembly and association, and other rights and freedoms guaranteed by\u00a0the International Covenant on\u00a0Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on\u00a0Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iosilevich\u2019s\u00a0prosecution is\u00a0part of\u00a0a\u00a0major campaign by\u00a0the Russian authorities against critics of\u00a0the government connected to\u00a0Open Russia (an\u00a0organisation associated with the figure of\u00a0Mikhail Khodorkovsky) and against the political opposition in\u00a0general. Memorial has already included Open Russia\u2019s\u00a0Rostov activist\u00a0Anastasia Shevchenko<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0its list of\u00a0political prisoners and Krasnodar opposition activist\u00a0Yana Antonova<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0its list of\u00a0victims of\u00a0politically motivated prosecutions who have not been deprived of\u00a0liberty.<\/p>\n

Memorial demands an\u00a0immediate end to\u00a0the prosecution of\u00a0Mikhail Iosilevich, the removal of\u00a0the repressive and unlawful Article 284.1 from the Criminal Code (that penalises \u2018carrying out the activities on\u00a0the territory of\u00a0the Russian Federation of\u00a0a\u00a0foreign or\u00a0international non-governmental organization whose activities have been recognised as\u00a0undesirable on\u00a0the territory of\u00a0the Russian Federation\u2019) and the punishment of\u00a0those guilty of\u00a0driving the journalist Irina Slavina to\u00a0suicide.<\/p>\n

Who is\u00a0Mikhail Iosilevich and what is\u00a0he\u00a0accused of?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iosilevich is\u00a0an\u00a0entrepreneur and civil society activist from Nizhny Novgorod, a\u00a0supporter of\u00a0the Flying Pasta Monster Church and head of\u00a0its Nizhny Novgorod community.<\/p>\n

On\u00a029 September 2020 a\u00a0criminal investigation was begun against Iosilevich under Article 284.1 of\u00a0the Criminal Code for carrying out the activities of\u00a0an\u00a0undesirable organization.<\/p>\n

The text of\u00a0the decision to\u00a0initiate the investigation states that Iosilevich had already been fined twice under Article 20.33 of\u00a0the Code of\u00a0Administrative Offences (\u2018Carrying out the activities on\u00a0the territory of\u00a0the Russian Federation of\u00a0a\u00a0foreign or\u00a0international non-governmental organization whose activities have been recognised as\u00a0undesirable on\u00a0the territory of\u00a0the Russian Federation\u2019) because in\u00a0February 2019 he\u00a0provided premises for the holding of\u00a0the Free People Forum and in\u00a0December 2019 for a\u00a0lecture by\u00a0the opposition politician Aleksandr Solovyov. Now, allegedly \u2018in\u00a0order to\u00a0undermine the foundations of\u00a0the constitutional order and security of\u00a0the state,\u2019 from 2 to\u00a09 September 2020 Iosilevich provided premises for the training of\u00a0local election observers. According to\u00a0the investigators, the training sessions were organised in\u00a0the framework of\u00a0the \u2018United Democrats\u2019 project run by\u00a0the Open Russia movement.<\/p>\n

On\u00a01 October searches were conducted of\u00a0the apartments of\u00a0a\u00a0number of\u00a0civil society activists and journalists in\u00a0Nizhny Novgorod.<\/p>\n

The next day, Nizhny Novgorod-based journalist Irina Slavina, who had already been\u00a0subjected<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0a\u00a0humiliating search and had previously been repeatedly fined on\u00a0far-fetched grounds, committed an\u00a0act of\u00a0self-immolation in\u00a0front of\u00a0the headquarters of\u00a0the Nizhny Novgorod region Interior Ministry building. In\u00a0a\u00a0post on\u00a0her Facebook page before her suicide, she wrote: \u2018Please blame the Russian Federation for my\u00a0death.\u2019<\/p>\n

Why does Memorial consider the prosecution of\u00a0Iosilevich politically motivated unlawful?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u00a0consider Mikhail Iosilevich to\u00a0be\u00a0unlawfully prosecuted for political reasons because the very notion of\u00a0\u2018undesirable organisations,\u2019 and the legislative norms that penalise carrying out their activities on\u00a0the territory of\u00a0the Russian Federation, imply arbitrary and inconsistent application and contradict the principle of\u00a0legal certainty and other fundamental principles of\u00a0law:<\/p>\n