Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [144]
The Chitayev brothers knew that Chechen appellants to Strasbourg were in a uniquely dangerous situation. Before hearing any verdict, very many of them would be murdered by “masked members of unidentified security agencies wearing combat fatigues,” as they are routinely described.
The Chitayevs did not, however, withdraw their appeal. On the contrary, they responded conscientiously to every inquiry from the European Court of Human Rights, wrote supplementary explanations, and were very active. Neither did the Russian state authorities leave them in peace. They were threatened with criminal cases, arrests and retaliation. The more vigorously the Chitayevs defended themselves, the greater the pressure which was brought to bear on them.
On June 30, 2005 their case was finally considered in Strasbourg. You read the court record with a sense that something is missing. Everything the Chitayevs allege has documentary confirmation: all our government’s replies to inquiries from the Court of Human Rights about the degrading treatment of the Chitayevs are bald, unsubstantiated assertions, mere fantasy along the following lines: “On April 12 when the plaintiffs’ house was inspected eight military greatcoats and four military jackets were found … video recordings of interviews with Shamil Basayev, a videotape of the documentary film Nokhcho Chechnya: Day of Freedom, photographs of Arbi Chitayev with a rifle.”
The suggestion is that here was a hotbed of resistance fighters and abductors of soldiers, never mind that the greatcoats belonged to the Chitayev brothers themselves, of whom there are four; or indeed that these are Soviet-era military greatcoats dating back to the days when the brothers were serving in the Soviet Army.
The result of this approach does not reflect well on Russia: a “decision on admissibility” is effectively a ruling in favor of someone whose appeal has been accepted for consideration. The basis and approach of the future verdict is already evident in the decision on admissibility, as is obvious in the Chitayevs’ case. The Chitayevs will win their case against the Russian Federation because it has failed to provide any justification either for their arrest or for the looting of their home.
Every stage of the deliberations in Strasbourg has been followed by the Russian authorities, indeed an official government representative has been present at every hearing, including the last one on June 30. While they still had time, before the final verdict, the regime resuscitated their criminal case against Adam, Arbi being beyond their reach. Here we again find the eight military greatcoats and tape of an interview with Shamil Basayev. A warrant was issued for Adam’s arrest and locating him was not difficult as he was not hiding, indeed living at his officially registered address. Not merely a law-abiding citizen, but one tenaciously determined to have the law respected, Adam was arrested and sent under convoy to Chechnya.
This is barefaced retaliation for his appeal to Strasbourg, the state’s attempt to get even with someone who is not prepared to behave like a sheep.
KHODORKOVSKY AND THE PRISONERS AND STAFF OF PENAL COLONY 14/10 MAY BE IN DANGER
April 3, 2006
People divide into those who believe in conspiracies and those who don’t. I belong to the latter category. Conspiracy stories strike me as dull, whether they are about the violent seizure of power, or the Count of Monte Cristo. The weird tangles produced by real life are a thousand times more dramatic.
I have before me a document which, however, has not come Novaya gazeta’s way by chance. It was brought here by its author, a self-assured individual with a military bearing. He produced his identification documents, his passport, certificate of graduation from a military college, and certificate of release from a place of detention.
“In February this year,” the document reads, “I agreed to take part in a certain operation. The location