Human rights organization office occupied in Moscow
BBC Monitoring
Text of report by Ekho Moskvy
April 10, 2008
[Presenter] Last night unidentified people broke into the building where the offices of the International Protection Centre and the For Human Rights movement are located in central Moscow. They said they were the owners of the premises.
Svetlana Davydova, a lawyer, has told our radio station about this. [At that time] she was working in the office on a complaint to be sent to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The leader of the For Human Rights movement, Lev Ponomarev, has said that his colleagues had called police, but they refused to sort out the situation.
[Ponomarev] I've just phoned the city's duty prosecutor. I demanded that, first of all, a hostage should be released. She is afraid of leaving the room because the intruders are there on the first floor. I do not know what they are up to. I am asking people to come. Human rights campaigners, civil activists have been alerted.
I am sure that, indisputably, all the issues that have arisen should be dealt with in a court of law. If someone is claiming the flat, which we have practically had reclassified as nonresidential premises, then everything should be sorted out in a court of law rather than by seizing the flat.
[Presenter] Lawyer Karina Moskalenko said that the storming of the office had made it impossible to work on the complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, which should be submitted today.
We are following the situation involving the office of the human rights organizations.
[Ren TV, Moscow, in Russian 0530 gmt 10 Apr 08 showed Svetlana Davydova saying: "Three young men, who neither introduced themselves nor explained the reason nor showed any papers, rudely and categorically demanded that we vacate the premises immediately, take documents and never come here again.
Our workplaces are in a sorry state. The staff are unlikely to be able to come [to work], and no-one is likely to be able to work here normally. We will have to clear up the devastation that has occurred here.]
