No country for old men

The authorities decided to quickly go for the jugular with the organisation. The hearing took just half a day. The whole time it seemed like we were rushing somewhere. The defence team’s requests were swatted aside one after the other, including the petitions to have a five-minute break (at least one in five hours) and to move the hearing to a bigger room where someone apart from the defendants and prosecutors could fit. The judge ruled that the hearing would continue in the same courtroom, only three writing journalists were let in, the rest were directed to the broadcast hall. A Mediazona correspondent stated that all seats for members of the public were occupied by student interns. The Moscow Helsinki Group members, who were not participating in the hearing, and foreign diplomats proceeded to the hall to watch the trial on TV screens.

The judge rejected the defence team’s request to summon their witnesses wishing to testify on the episodes imputed to the MHG by the Justice Ministry: the court trials heard outside of Moscow. Of course, the judge consulted himself and rejected it as well.

The task to liquidate the Moscow Helsinki Group was given to judge Mikhail Kazakov, the same judge who shut down another human rights centre, Memorial, in December 2021. It seems like Kazakov has earned quite a reputation for it.

‘Look for defence in Podolsk’

One of the biggest issues the Justice Ministry had with the Moscow Helsinki Group was that the human rights activists worked in other regions and not just in Moscow where the organisation is registered. The agency counted 11 cases which they branded as “serious irreconcilable violations”. These included a court hearing in Yaroslavl in 2020 in prison torture case, a court hearing in 2020 in the case of former Moscow region official Alexander Shestun (MHG executive director Svetlana Astrakhantseva was openly shocked and asked the judge: “Shestun’s family contacted the Moscow Helsinki Group. What were we supposed to say? Look for defence in Podolsk?”).

Astrakhantseva replied that she could not turn down the request for help just because the group’s name has Moscow in it.

Moreover, the lawsuit mentioned that the activists signed an appeal to St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov with a demand to lift the bans on one-man protests in the city. And even though the MHG was just one entity that signed the appeal and did not initiate it, the Justice Ministry noted that the Moscow Helsinki Group was interfering in St. Petersburg affairs.

“But why specifically the organisation’s activities outside of Moscow became a violation?” the defence team representatives asked. “You were doing the same [before]?” the judge asked the defendants. “Yes, even more so! A question: why wasn’t it flagged then?” Svetlana Astrakhantseva exclaimed.

“The Moscow Helsinki Group launched the International Helsinki Movement. How were we supposed to do it without leaving Moscow in the Justice Ministry’s view?” lawyer and MHG co-chair Dmitry Makarov asked the court.

“We have been in existence for 40 years. The Justice Ministry has checked our reports and conducted reviews several times since 2010,” lawyer Marina Agaltsova noted. “It saw the broad activities which were particularly done in the regions. But there was no reaction. But 2022 came and the Justice Ministry is rushing to shut us down. Why now?”

The prosecutor did not have an answer. Only Margarita Mezentseva, a Justice Ministry representative, lashed out in response to a defence team comment: “You are turning everything upside down!” She then said that there could have been even more violations than just 11. But the ministry representative could not say that confidently because they still “could not find more”…

“Should we check registrations of all participants in our online events? Does the participation of people from other regions in our events violate the law? We are trying to understand how to not violate your restrictions,” Astrakhantseva tried to get answers from the Justice Ministry. “These are not our bans,” Mezentseva responded.

The ministry deemed liquidation to be an appropriate punishment for the terrible crimes committed by the MHG. The regional business trips were not the only issue, the organisation’s charter was also under fire for allegedly not meeting legal requirements. And anyway, when the review was conducted, the organisation failed to submit a full package of documents. “Did you request any additional documents from us? Were there any additional requests?” the defence team says. Mezentseva once again cuts them off: “No. We do not need to. We do not have to”.

‘Leave Justice Ministry officials alone with this disgrace’

“I am 80 years old,” Valery Borshchev, MHG co-chair, started his speech quietly but gradually increased the volume of his voice as he went on. “I never thought that I would attend a hearing that is destroying something that was built by Andrey Sakharov, Elena Bonner, and other founders of our human rights movement. It amazes me how easily you are deciding our fate. How can you with such ease destroy something that took decades to be built? It was hard to create, it required a lot of effort, sacrifices, and human lives. People were dying in prison camps! You are speaking today about the Moscow Helsinki Group as a very ordinary organisation… And it is a phenomenon. An international phenomenon. You are destroying it… This… I just don’t know what this is.”

MHG members and Vice-President of Moscow’s lawyer chamber Henri Reznik was also among the MHG lawyers. He was silent throughout the hearing. He once requested a break from the judge (Kazakov denied the motion). However, he did stand up to speak during the oral argument stage.

“My colleagues [today] had to argue with absurd ideas. I categorically reject that Justice Ministry workers are unaware that we do not have a regional criminal code, there’s only the federal one,” Reznik started out confidently.

But the Justice Ministry went for it. It just shows that the Justice Ministry itself, possibly in collusion with the prosecutor’s office, decided to eliminate the Moscow Helsinki Group. I just cannot explain it in any other way. Let’s look evidence in the eye.”

“Your honour, I have been in justice for a long time. I cannot complain. My fate granted me successes and wins, including many of those in the Moscow City Court. But I also faced unjust verdicts. Mostly in political cases that the state was very interested in. And when I come to the hearing, I do not change my attitude. I come from the premise that each judge would not want to take a sin upon themselves when hearing the case. I ask you: leave Justice Ministry officials alone with this disgrace. Dismiss this absolutely groundless lawsuit that has nothing to do with law.”

Moscow City Court judge Mikhail Kazakov did not heed the plea and took this sin upon himself. He ruled in favour of the Justice Ministry. The MHG now has one month to appeal. After the hearing, Henri Reznik said that the organisation would go through every stage of this process. “It is necessary. Because even though our legal efforts are doomed to fail, the times do change. People step down. The regime changes,” he said and added, “Life is a long thing.”

The Moscow Helsinki Group would have turned 47 this year.