Investigators return to "Memorial" part of property seized during searches

Some of the documents seized during the searches conducted within the case of rehabilitation of Nazism have been returned to the "Memorial" Centre for the Defence of Human Rights.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 21, 2023, employees of the above "Memorial" Centre, as well as those of the "International Memorial"* and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial"*, liquidated by the court ruling, were detained after the searches conducted within the case of rehabilitation of Nazism. Then, law enforcers took away the computers and "turned everything upside down," the "Memorial" reported.

The reason for the prosecution under the article on rehabilitation of Nazism was in three names contained in the database of victims of political repression, which was run by the "International Memorial"* prior to the liquidation court ruling; these three persons had been convicted in the USSR for treason, said Natalia Secretaryova, the head of the legal department of the "Memorial".

Now, investigators have returned to human rights defenders from the "Memorial" some of the documents seized during the search conducted on March 21, namely, several memory books of the repression victims and a part of the archive of letters from former "Ostarbeiters", the human rights project "OVD-Info"** has informed in its Telegram channel.

Alexander Cherkasov, a board member of the HRC "Memorial"*, has explained that the investigator, who is running the case against the "International Memorial"* on rehabilitation of Nazism, asked to take back a part of what was seized during the searches.

"Because these boxes take up a lot of space and prevent her from getting in to study the next seized boxes," Mr Cherkasov has written on the Facebook***.

*On December 29, 2021, by the decision of the Moscow City Court, the Russian legal entities of the "International Memorial" and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" were liquidated. Activists of the organizations have reported that both organizations will continue their work without forming legal entities.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

***On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.