Watchdog

Two Russian Nobel Peace Prize winners have issued a joint appeal for authorities to drop a bid to close one of Russia's most venerated human rights groups -- Memorial.

In a joint statement on November 18, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, and the editor in chief of the Novaya gazeta newspaper, Dmitry Muratov, said attempts to close Memorial have “caused anxiety and concern in the country, which we share.”

Moscow prosecutors this month asked a city court to order the Memorial human rights center's closure, while Russian federal prosecutors want the Supreme Court to order a shutdown of International Memorial.

Memorial was launched shortly before the Soviet collapse in part to document Soviet repression. In the decades since, it has produced hallmark indicators of the rights situation and documented historical and ongoing injustices.

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“The long-term activities of Memorial have always been aimed at restoring historical justice, preserving the memory of hundreds of thousands of those killed and injured during the years of repression, and preventing this from happening now and in the future. The continuation of this work meets the interests of society and the Russian state,” Gorbachev and Muratov said.

“We urge the Attorney General's Office to withdraw the claim from court and settle the claims out of court,” they added.

The attempt to close the organizations relates to alleged violations of the country’s "foreign agent" legislation.

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Memorial is among several news outlets and rights organizations to have been labeled "foreign agents" in what is seen as a historic crackdown on civil society and critics of the government.

Russia’s so-called "foreign agent" legislation was adopted in 2012 and has been modified repeatedly.

It requires nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign assistance, and that the government deems to be engaged in political activity, to be registered, to identify themselves as “foreign agents,” and to submit to audits.

The move to close down Memorial has sparked widespread condemnation at home and abroad.

ORAL, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced an activist to one year of restricted freedom for openly supporting the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and its associated party, the unregistered Koshe (Street) party, amid an ongoing crackdown on supporters of the two opposition groups.

A court in the northwestern city of Oral sentenced Orynbai Oqasov on November 18 after finding him guilty of taking part in unsanctioned rallies organized by the DVK and Koshe earlier this year and supporting such rallies on social networks.

Oqasov rejected the charges, saying he used his right to express his thoughts and opinions. His lawyer, Zhanbolat Kolzhanov, said the court's ruling will be appealed.

Many activists across the Central Asian nation have been handed lengthy prison terms or parole-like restricted freedom sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and the Koshe party, as well as for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.

The DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.

The Kazakh authorities have insisted there are no political prisoners in the Central Asian country.