Paris and Berlin shocked by the toughening of the sentence to Yuri Dmitriev | News from Germany about Russia | DW

Berlin and Paris referred to as on the Russian authorities to finish the persecution of the pinnacle of the Karelian department of Memorial, historian Yuri Dmitriev. Bärbel Kofler, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Federal Republic of Germany, and French Ambassador for Human Rights Francois Crockett, on Wednesday, September 30, revealed a joint assertion in which they harassed that they were “shocked by the decision” of the Supreme Court of Karelia, which elevated Dmitriev’s sentence from 3 , 5 years to 13 years.

According to them, the Karelian courtroom dominated on the outcomes of “a course of that was by no means truthful.” “It is clear that this is a new try to silence those who need to analyze historic crimes in Russia and protect the reminiscence of the Stalinist terror,” Kofler and Crockett mentioned.

They additionally expressed solidarity with Yuri Dmitriev and referred to as on the Russian authorities to launch the historian and cease the persecution of civil society.

The determination of the Supreme Court of Karelia

On the eve of the Supreme Court of Karelia, the sentence to Yuri Dmitriev elevated from 3.5 years in a colony to 13 years in a strict regime colony. The punishment was elevated underneath the article on sexual assault. For the remainder of the articles, in response to which the courtroom of first occasion acquitted the historian, the case was despatched for overview to the Petrozavodsk City Court.

The chairman of the council of the human rights heart “Memorial” Oleg Orlov referred to as the choice of the Supreme Court illegal, since Dmitriev refused the lawyer appointed to him. “This is revenge on those who defended him, a spit in the direction of the whole public that defended Dmitriev. Revenge of the system that considers itself the inheritor to the Soviet system,” Orlov mentioned.

On July 22, the Petrozavodsk City Court sentenced Yuri Dmitriev to three.5 years in jail. The historian was acquitted underneath the articles on making pornography, possession of weapons and lecherous acts, however was discovered responsible of sexual assault towards a younger adopted daughter. Since Dmitriev has been within the remand jail for greater than three years, he should be launched in November this 12 months.

The case of Yuri Dmitriev

The head of the Karelian department of “Memorial” is recognized as the compiler and writer of the Books of Memory of the Victims of Political Repression of the 1930-Forties in Karelia and supplies on the historical past of the development of the Belomorkanal. In addition, he found within the area the locations of mass graves of victims of repression in Sandarmokh and Krasny Bor.

Dmitriev was first detained in 2016 on suspicion of creating pornographic images of his adopted daughter and held in custody from December 2016 to January 2018. According to investigators, from 2008 to 2015, Dmitriev photographed his underage daughter within the nude and, utilizing these footage, produced pornographic supplies. The historian himself claimed that he took footage of his daughter as soon as a month to look at her bodily improvement, and after the woman grew up, he stopped photographing her.

In April 2018, the Petrozavodsk City Court absolutely acquitted Dmitriev underneath these articles, recognizing his proper to rehabilitation and compensation for injury. At the identical time, the courtroom declared Dmitriev responsible of unlawful storage of elements of a smooth-bore gun and sentenced him to 2.5 years of restriction of freedom. In June 2018, the Supreme Court of Karelia overturned the acquittal of Dmitriev by the courtroom of first occasion and despatched the case for a new trial.

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