Hands off Golos!
Statement by the YABLOKO party, 09.07.2015
The searches of the apartments of Golos [a respected election-monitoring NGO] representatives Grigory Melkonyants, Tatyana Troinova and Roman Udot which took place in the brutal traditions of Joseph Stalin’s times – early in the morning, breaking the doors and a simultaneous search in the office of the Moscow department of the organisation – is an obvious action of intimidation of the most effective election-monitoring organisation ahead of the elections. The pretext for searches is absurd – the tax evasion case against Golos’ sister organization in the Samara region. The aim of computers and documentation seizure is to disrupt the provision of “The election fraud map” before the regional elections.
The aim of the actions against Golos is not only another wave of human rights defenders intimidation but the preparation to mass scale fraud at the coming September elections in a number of regions.
The YABLOKO party expresses solidarity with the colleagues who YABLOKO have cooperated with on election monitoring for a number of years.
We demand to stop the persecution of Golos and offer and apology for law enforcement’s violent actions.
Sergei Mitrokhin
YABLOKO Chairman
Posted: July 9th, 2015 under Elections, Human Rights, Regional elections 2015.