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Moscow City Court abolishes Moscow Helsinki Group

The human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group was founded on May 12, 1976

Moscow Helsinki Group members Dmitry Makarov, Svetlana Astrakhantseva, lawyers Mikhail Biryukov, Genri Reznik Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

Moscow Helsinki Group members Dmitry Makarov, Svetlana Astrakhantseva, lawyers Mikhail Biryukov, Genri Reznik

© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court on Wednesday abolished one of Russia's oldest human rights organizations - the Moscow Helsinki Group - thus satisfying a claim filed by the Ministry of Justice.

"The petition filed by the Ministry of Justice regarding the abolition of the human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group shall be satisfied," says the verdict the judge read out. The court’s decision has not yet entered into force and can be appealed. The group will appeal the ruling, defense lawyer Genry Reznik told TASS. The court announced only the operative part of the judgement so the motives remain unknown.

During the debate the Justice Ministry argued that the main reason for the abolition of the MHG was that it carried out its activities throughout the country, while the group had the status of a regional organization.

"The MHG is registered as a regional Moscow organization, but it conducted its activities extraterritorially, which is an irreparable violation," the Justice Ministry’s representative said. The prosecutor's office supported the Justice Ministry’s claim, interpreting the audit data to be objective and confirming the violations found were irremediable.

In turn, MHG co-chair Valery Borshchev said that the group’s abolition was a blow to the global human rights movement, destroying a unique social phenomenon. He recalled that at the moment of its creation the MHG was conceived as a consolidating body of the Russian human rights movement. "This is the country's oldest human rights organization, and from the first days of its existence it has been carrying out broad, consolidating activities. Therefore, the claims made are absurd. Human rights are extraterritorial," he said.

The human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group was founded on May 12, 1976. In May 1996, the organization was headed by Lyudmila Alekseyeva. She died on December 8, 2018. After her death, the MHG’s leadership structure changed: instead of having one chairman, three co-chairs were introduced. In January 2019, Valery Borshchev, Vyacheslav Bakhmin and Dmitry Makarov were elected to these positions.

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