The hearing at Karelia's High Court of defence and prosecution appeals against the 22 July verdict in the DMITRIEV trial will go ahead tomorrow despite the absence of Victor Anufriev, the attorney who has led Dmitriev's defence since December 2016. Postponed for a week at Anufriev's request (he is self-isolating), the hearing will begin at … Continue reading Hearing goes ahead — without Anufriev
Petrozavodsk*
A Time to Speak Out
Today the Supreme Court of Karelia is hearing appeals from prosecution and defence against the verdict pronounced at Yury DMITRIEV’s trial on 22 July this year. The prosecution has slightly “softened” its demands: now it is asking not for 15 but 13 years' imprisonment. The defence, as before, demands that Dmitriev be cleared of all … Continue reading A Time to Speak Out
Release detainees before they become infected
In view of the expanding Corona virus epidemic, Russian lawyers are calling for many held by the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS) to be released. One obvious candidate, almost continuously imprisoned since December 2016, is Yury DMITRIEV. At the last hearing in his slow-moving trial his detention in custody was extended until the end of June. … Continue reading Release detainees before they become infected
Punished for memorialising Sandarmokh
Russian historian Yury DMITRIEV turned 64 on 28 January 2020. It was his third birthday detained on charges that bear no scrutiny, and, writes Halya Coynash, his arrest coincided with the beginnings of a campaign to rewrite the history of one of the darkest pages of the Soviet Terror – the mass killing by quota … Continue reading Punished for memorialising Sandarmokh
Political Trial reinstated
A rare moment of justice from a Russian court has proved all too fleeting, writes Halya Coynash. On 14 June, Karelia’s High Court overturned the acquittal in April of world-renowned historian Yury Dmitriev and sent the ‘case’ back for retrial. Dmitriev’s imprisonment and trial had been widely viewed as politically-motivated persecution, and his acquittal – … Continue reading Political Trial reinstated
The Dmitriev Affair 