MOSCOW -- Moscow's Tverskoi Court will start hearings into the lawsuit filed by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov against a prominent Russian human rights activist on September 25.
Kadyrov, Chechnya’s Moscow-backed leader, filed a lawsuit against Oleg Orlov, the head of the Memorial human rights center, accusing him of "libel and insulting his honor and dignity." Kadyrov demanded a public apology and the equivalent of $316,000 in compensation.
Orlov had accused Kadyrov of being behind the murder of prominent Chechen rights activist Natalya Estemirova. Estemirova, who worked for Memorial, was found murdered in Ingushetia on July 15, just hours after she was kidnapped in the Chechen capital, Grozny.
Last week, Moscow's Interior Affairs Department (GUVD) dropped the accusation of libel against Orlov.
Orlov's lawyer, Genri Reznik, told RFE/RL that the accusation of insulting someone’s honor and dignity is not a criminal charge, adding that the decision on that will be made later.