The verdict is milder than expected. The city court of Petrozavodsk in the North of the Russian Federation has condemned the historian Yuri Dmitriev due to the sexual abuse of his adoptive daughter to three and a half years in prison. The his lawyer Viktor Anufriev told to journalists. He said, Dmitriev responded to the verdict quietly. "He is a strong man, he knows that he is guilty", so Anufriev. The prosecution had requested for the 64-year-old head of the Department of the human rights centre "Memorial" in the Republic of Karelia, even 15 years of camp imprisonment. The lawyer, according to Dmitriev could come in mid-September free, because he was absolved of allegations in the previous procedure free.

Which was discussed by the historian?

"Memorial" made clear during the process, no one believe that the allegations are true. Rather, Dmitriev should, as a different and politically Persecuted think with trumped-up accusations Silenced.

Dmitriev is the author and editor of books, to commemorate victims of political repressions under the Communist Soviet regime in Karelia. In the case of research on executions under Stalin, the Soviet dictator, he discovered in Sandarmoch a mass grave from the time of the Great terror of 1937 and 1938. He documented the names of thousands of people were shot there, and established a memorial.

family members and colleagues of the historian are convinced that Dmitriev was persecuted because of his activities. Because in his memory he got those powers in the way that worship Stalin. And you accuse Dmitriev, he wanted to kick Russia's history with feet. Dmitriev said during the process: "We need to remember those people who died by the will of the leader of our state." This was his Patriotic duty, he said.

allegations of the investigating authorities

The current procedure is already the second against Dmitriev due to "pedophilia". In 2016, investigators secured in Dmitrijews flat files from his Computer. There were also pictures of naked adopted daughter, which have not been classified by experts, but as a children's pornography. A psychological expert opinion testified Dmitriev has no pedophile tendencies. The Nude photos were according to him, to document to the authorities, the development of the malnourished child.

Nevertheless, Dmitriev was accused of child pornography. Later, he was acquitted of this charge, but convicted of weapons possession of a sentence of imprisonment of two and a half years. In his house, and parts of a historical weapon had been found, which originate from archaeological excavations. 2018 the Supreme court of Karelia cashed in those free spell, which is why it came to re-arrest, including process due to the suspicion of sexual abuse of his adoptive daughter.

Open letter to support Dmitriev

in mid-June, shortly before the resumption of the court process, turned the Nobel prize for Literature-winners Svetlana Alexievich and Herta Müller, as well as the Goncourt-prize-winner Jonathan Littell, with an open letter to the human rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic.

finally, the criminal case objectives against the memory of the repression and the historian, Dmitriev himself, the indisputable evidence of the dark pages of the Soviet history brought to light, and a creeping rehabilitation of Stalinism in today's Russia has drawn the attention of. The Russian authorities would try the story of Sandarmoch rewrite, to slander, the historian, and to groundlessly accuse of a crime.

Alexievich, Müller and Littell, remember that, for the liberation of Dmitrijews simple citizens, but also European artists and scientists use. So would have visited in the past autumn 20 ambassadors of European countries in the Russian Federation, the memorial in Sandarmoch, "to pay tribute to both the Victims of terror as well as the power of the citizen Yuriy Dmitriev tribute".

author: Markian Ostaptschuk

*The post "Russia: arrest for historian Yuri Dmitriev" is published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.

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Date Of Update: 23 July 2020, 04:26