Memorial’s Perm office and house of its chairman searched
On 31 October 2019, agents from the Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Extremism, the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation searched Memorial’s office in the city of Perm as well as the house of its chairman Robert Latypov. The searches were conducted in connection with an investigation into alleged illegal tree felling by the organisation.
Memorial, or International Memorial, is a non-profit organisation which investigates and researches political repression which took place in the USSR and ongoing repression in present-day Russia. It assists in the moral and legal rehabilitation of persons subjected to those political repressions.
On 31 October 2019, agents from the Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Extremism, the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation searched Memorial’s office in the city of Perm as well as the house of its chairman Robert Latypov. The searches were conducted in connection with an investigation into alleged illegal tree felling by the organisation.
Memorial, or International Memorial, is a non-profit organisation which investigates and researches political repression which took place in the USSR and ongoing repression in present-day Russia. It assists in the moral and legal rehabilitation of persons subjected to those political repressions.
On 31 October 2019, the day following the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions, the Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Extremism Centre, the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Security Service of Russia conducted searches in Memorial’s Perm-based office and in the house of its chairman Robert Latypov. Work at the organisation was disrupted as several computers, financial and other organisational documents, and a notebook were seized. The searches were conducted after a criminal case on illegal tree felling was opened in connection with Memorial’s expedition in summer 2019 to Galyashor and Velva-Bazab in the Perm region. In August 2019, Memorial’s employees and volunteers went on expedition to clean up a monument devoted to persecuted Lithuanians and Poles in Galyashor village. In October 2019, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Perm region fined Memorial 200 000 RUB (approx. 2 815 EUR) and its chairman Robert Latypov 50 000 RUB (approx. 700 EUR) for “unauthorized occupation of forest plots”. Several Lithuanian citizens were also fined.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned at the searches carried out in Memorial’s office and in the house of its chairman Robert Latypov. It believes that the constant pressure on the human rights organisation and its employees is aimed at discouraging them from carrying out their legitimate and peaceful human rights work in Russia.
