RCFS DIRECTOR LIKELY TO BE CONVICTED

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000857

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/27/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV EAID PREF RS
SUBJECT: RCFS DIRECTOR LIKELY TO BE CONVICTED

REF: A) 05 MOSCOW 13160 B) 05 STATE 187966 C) 05
MOSCOW 10863

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Kirk Augustine.
Reasons 1.4 (b and d).


1. (C) The trial of Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
(RCFS) Executive Director Stanislav Dmitriyevskiy is expected
to conclude February 3. Oksana Chelysheva, an RCFS staff
member, and other human rights contacts have told us they
expect Dmitriyevskiy to be convicted. He is charged with
inciting racial and ethnic hatred, and a conviction would
carry a maximum five-year sentence. Prosecutors charged
Dmitriyevskiy with the publication of statements by Chechen
separatists Aslan Maskhadov and Akhmed Zakayev in the group's
newspaper in March 2004.


2. (C) Chelysheva said that she believes prosecutors will
file tax evasion charges against Dmitriyevskiy shortly after
the veridict in the present case. The tax inspectorate
claims RCFS owes more than 1 million rubles in back taxes on
the grants it received from the National Endowment for
Democracy (NED),the EU, and the Norwegian Government. After
briefly freezing RCFS bank accounts and withdrawing some of
the RCFS funds, including money provided by NED, the tax
inspectorate attempted in November to withdraw an additonal
91,000 rubles (USD 3,250) on the basis of the back tax claim,
in spite of a court injunction obtained by RCFS in October.
Chelysheva said Dmitriyevskiy's conviction on charges of
inciting racial hatred would make it easier for prosecutors
to argue that RCFS was not entitled to any tax exemption as a
charitable organization. If convicted of tax evasion,
Dmitriyevskiy could be sentenced to two more years in prison.
(NOTE: A Nizhny Novgorod judge ruled in favor of RCFS in
dismissing a Ministry of Justice suit to de-register the
organization in the fall. END NOTE)


3. (C) Chelysheva told us she appreciated the international
support RCFS has received, but the trial's Nizhy Novgorod
location had allowed the authorities to conduct it in near
isolation. Amid the press coverage of the British spying
scandal and the passage of the NGO law, Dmitriyevskiy's case
has largely gone unnoticed by the international media. RCFS
has managed to bring some international observers and Russian
human rights activists to the trial, but Russian border
guards refused to admit well-known British human rights
lawyer William Bowring into the country in November. Our
human rights contacts have not pointed to any particular
violations in the conduct of the trial, but they say that the
judge has clearly leaned toward the prosecution. There are
discussions among foreign embassies in Moscow about sending
observers to hear the verdict as a show of support, but thus
far no embassy has committed to do so. Contacts at the
European Union mission have told us the Austrian Presidency
is aware of the case, and there could be an EU reaction when
the verdict is delivered although no decision has yet been
made. The European Parliament on January 19 adopted a
resolution on Chechnya and civil society in Russia that calls
for the charges against Dmitriyevskiy to be dropped. We
understand that Amnesty International plans to designate
Dmitriyevskiy a prisoner of conscience after his conviction.


4. (C) COMMENT: Our contacts are convinced that a guilty
verdict is pre-ordained. We cannot rule out the possibility
of an acquittal, but it seems unlikely. For more than a
year, RCFS and its staff have been subjected to an intense
array of investigations, legal actions, and personal threats.
Some human rights contacts have suggested that the action
against RCFS is an experiment in how best to silence an NGO.
We do not know if RCFS's travails portend GOR efforts against
the broader NGO community, but a guilty verdict and
additional criminal charges against Dmitriyevskiy will
further add to the nervousness many NGOs feel. Embassy will
continue to track this case closely.
BURNS