Press Release, May 24, 2011

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Council, convening in Dresden, Germany, unanimously voted for the draft resolution submitted by the YABLOKO party in support of Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights centre and winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize “For the Freedom of Thought”.

European liberals expressed their deep concern with the trials and harassments against Oleg Orlov initiated by leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov for the criticism of the Chechen authorities in view of investigation of the murder in Chechnya of renowned human rights activist Natalya Estemirova. The resolution of ELDR Council stressed that persecution of Oleg Orlov was “clearly politically motivated, raised serious questions on the functioning of the Russian judicial system, and demonstrated the desire of the Chechen authorities to prevent Orlov voicing his opinion”.

ELDR called the Russian authorities to “stop trials and harassments against Oleg Orlov and other human rights defenders”, “properly investigate the murder of Natalya Estemirova and bring the perpetrators to justice”.

The next hearing on Oleg Orlov case will take place on June 9, 2011. This is already the second trial initiated by Ramzan Kadyrov against renowned human rights activist for his statement on responsibility of the President of Chechnya for the situation in the republic. In 2009 the court satisfied a civil libel suit by the head of Chechnya to Oleg Orlov holding that Orlov had to pay RUR 20,000 and Memorial RUR 50,000 in compensation of moral damage to Kadyrov. This was followed by multiple media reports on Kadyrov’s alleged revoking of his suits against Orlov when the sentence had already come into effect. In summer 2010 a criminal libel case was raised against Orlov (Article 129 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). These hearings have been still going on.

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) joins together liberal European parties. The party is represented in the European Parliament by the ALDE faction. The YABLOKO party has been a full-fledged member of ELDR since 2006.