Trial on recognition of "International Tribunal for Chechnya" as extremist begins

Today, the Dzerzhinsk City Court of the Nizhni Novgorod Region has started considering a civil case on the claim lodged by the Public Prosecutor of Nizhni Novgorod on recognition of the monograph "International Tribunal for Chechnya" to be extremist, said the press service of the court.

The book "International Tribunal for Chechnya: legal prospects of bringing to individual criminal liability of suspects of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the course of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic" was presented in Moscow in 2009. Its authors – Stanislav Dmitrievskiy, Bogdan Gvareli and Oksana Chelysheva – study the crimes committed during the armed conflict in Chechnya.

In the opinion of the prosecutor's office of Nizhni Novgorod, the book writes about the superiority of the Russian nation over the Chechen one, the "deficiency and depravity" of the latter; it also contains "information directed at kindling enmity and hatred" against Russian law enforcers, the spokesman of the court told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Stanislav Dmitrievskiy,a human rights defender and the executive director of the "Russian-Chechen Friendship Society", notes that the authors of the book wanted to show the growth of xenophobic sentiments in Russia. He associates the claims to the book with the fact that the book expresses his opinion that it is necessary to bring Vladimir Putin and his retinue to criminal liability.