MOSCOW -- Russia's Supreme Court has resumed a hearing into a request by federal prosecutors to shut down one of the post-Soviet world's oldest and most prestigious human rights organizations, Memorial International.
Judge Alla Nazarova started the hearing on December 14 after a 20-minute delay. The initial phase of the hearing saw the court study basic registration documentation from Memorial International, after which the prosecutor-general's request to shut down the group and other documents in the case will be studied.
The case was initiated by prosecutors under the controversial "foreign agent" law, which is increasingly being used by officials to shut down civil society groups and independent media in Russia.
Rights activists say that there are no legal grounds to liquidate the organization, which has been devoted since the late 1980s to researching and memorializing the crimes of the Soviet Union, as well as to promoting human rights in Russia and the former Soviet republics. They say the prosecutor-general's demand to shut down Memorial International is "a politically motivated decision."
Memorial has characterized the actions of Russian authorities as "political pressure" and countered that "there are no legal grounds for liquidation."
The United States and European Union have called on Russia to stop the move to shut down Memorial.
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.
Later modifications of the law targeted foreign-funded media, including RFE/RL's Russian Service, six other RFE/RL Russian-language news services, and Current Time.
Russian Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov, meanwhile, claims that Memorial International was added to the registry of "foreign agents" for systematically violating the law by failing to appropriately label its materials -- one of the requirements for those on the registry.
Russia's most prominent lawyers -- Genri Reznik, Maria Eismont, Mikhail Biryukov, Grigory Vaipan, Anastasia Garina, Tatyana Glushkova, Tamilla Imanova, Natalya Morozova, and Natalya Sekretaryova -- are representing Memorial International at the hearing.
Dozens gathered in front of the Supreme Court building in Moscow on December 14 to support the rights organization.
Police detained at least one picketer who appeared separately outside the court holding a sign saying: "Hands off Memorial! Free political prisoners!"
A separate claim by Moscow authorities targets the Memorial Human Rights Center, the local group that works under the umbrella of Memorial International.
In a joint statement on November 18, two Russian Nobel Peace laureates, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, and Novaya gazeta newspaper editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, said attempts to close Memorial had "caused anxiety and concern in the country, which we share."
Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, a pan-European rights body, said earlier that the "foreign agents" legislation "stigmatizes" NGOs, media, and individuals and "has had a repressive impact on civil society in Russia over recent years."
