CASE CONTINUES AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000535

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2018
TAGS: KDEM PHUM PGOV PINR RS
SUBJECT: CASE CONTINUES AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
PONOMAREV

Classified By: Ambassador William J. Burns. Reasons: 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C) Summary: The slander case against "For Human Rights"
Chairman Lev Ponomarev that was opened on February 22
continued to move forward the week of February 25 with
Ponomarev called in for questioning on February 26 and case
materials provided to Ponomarev's lawyer the same day. In
conversations February 26 and 27, Ponomarev and other human
rights activists traced the case to a combination of bad
blood between Ponomarev and the GOR official he allegedly
slandered --prison system chief Yuriy Kalinin-- as well as
GOR agencies attempting to demonstrate their usefulness in
advance of the presidential succession and anxiety in some
government quarters as the succession process proceeds.
Ponomarev and Moscow Helsinki Group Chairman Lyudmila
Alekseveya believe that with the completion of the succession
process the case may not go to trial. If it does go to trial,
they expect that Ponomarev will be found guilty, but
sentenced only to pay a fine rather than serve a term of
incarceration. Ponomarev guessed the trial could take place
within the month. Ambassador raised the Ponomarev case with
MFA DFM Yakovenko February 26. Yakovenko had no substantive
comment. End summary.

Long-Running Case
--------------


2. (C) As widely reported in the media, on February 22, a
criminal case was opened against "For Human Rights" Chairman
Lev Ponomarev for Ponomarev's alleged slander of the Director
of the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments
(FSEP) Director, General Yuriy Kalinin. The criminal case
was opened on the basis of an April 23, 2007, decision of a
Moscow court, which found false Ponomarev's accusation that
Kalinin was responsible for torture that was occurring in
Russia's prison system. The Moscow court agreed that Kalinin
had been slandered in a November 10, 2006, article, entitled
"During Kalinin's Reign Forty Torture Zones Have Appeared in
Russia." The news agency that published Ponomarev's article,
Regnum, issued a retraction after a court ruling.


3. (C) Ponomarev has signed an agreement not to leave the
country while the investigation proceeds. Depending on what
subsection of Russian Criminal Code Article 129 (defamation)
he is charged with, if found guilty, Ponomarev could be
forced to pay a fine or serve as much as three years in
prison.

Ponomarev, Other HR Activists
Think Fine, Not Prison, Likely
Outcome
--------------


4. (C) In a February 27 conversation, Ponomarev guessed that
the case against him was "indirectly" associated with the
March 2 presidential elections and the succession process,
with Kalinin and others attempting to demonstrate to the
incoming Medvedev team that he will be "necessary to his
administration." Ponomarev also noted that his relations
with the FSEP Chief have been bad for several years.
Ponomarev's repeated calls for Kalinin's resignation and his
efforts to hold Kalinin personally responsible for abuses in
the prison system had gone down badly with the General.
Ponomarev acknowledged that the sentence, if he is found
guilty, could range from a fine to three years. He had been
questioned February 26, Ponomarev said, and his lawyer, Igor
Meskhiyev, was currently acquainting himself with the case
evidence. (Meskhiyev has been the lawyer for Yukos defendant
Platon Lebedev.) Ponomarev expected that the trial, if it
occurred, would take place within one month. Interestingly,
Ponomarev did not trace his current difficulties to the
February 12 Wall Street Journal article, entitled "Putin's
Torture Colonies" in which he is prominently cited.


5. (C) In a separate, February 27 conversation Moscow
Helsinki Watch Chairman Lyudmila Alekseyeva suggested that
election anxiety may have contributed to Ponomarev's
troubles; "although I don't understand why they are anxious,"
she added. Alekseyeva suggested that the authorities during
the transition period, "even without orders from above," felt
it necessary to "ensure order" and, more importantly, to
demonstrate to their superiors that they are doing so.
Pointing to the large number of police that have been on
Moscow's streets in the last several days, Alekseyeva said
she had asked a special forces commander if they had been
ordered to deploy, and been told "no." "They just want to
show their bosses they are ready for anything," she said.
Alekseyeva predicted that the case will go nowhere. The
charges are "nonsense," she said, but even so, the local
human rights community was gearing up to make noise about
Ponomarev's plight. Alekseyeva did not mention the WSJ

article as a cause of Ponomarev's troubles.


6. (C) Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch February 27
ascribed the case to GOR "agencies trying to strengthen their
positions" in advance of the succession. She was less
convinced that any insecurity about the upcoming succession
remained, as "the opposition has been vanquished." Like
Alekseyeva, Lokshina thought that initial furor would soon
die down, and that, at worse, Ponomarev would have to pay a
fine.


7. (C) In a February 26 conversation, William Smirnov of the
Presidential Council of Human Rights backed Ponomarev's
criticisms of the prison system, but thought that attempting
to trace all of its problems personally to Kalinin was a
tactical error. Unlike the others, Smirnov thought that the
case could produce serious problems for Ponomarev, but he
guessed that a symbolic punishment was more likely, as
anything else would be "not the best way for a new president
to begin" his term of office.


8. (C) In a February 26 conversation, Ambassador raised the
Ponomarev affair with MFA DFM Yakovenko. Yakovenko had no
substantive comment.

Comment
--------------


9. (C) It seems hard to believe that the February 12 article
did not stimulate renewed interest on the part of the
authorities in this long-dormant case. It is possible that
the article jogged the memories of those with both an ax to
grind against Ponomarev and an urge to make themselves useful
as the succession process continues and a new president
prepares to take his place in the Kremlin. Ambassador will
continue to raise the Ponomarev case with GOR representatives.
BURNS