Read on Twitter
#YuriDmitriev uncovered and protected mass graves, wrote about the #Gulag, one of the darkest moments of #Russia history, and arguably of the world. For that, he has spent the last five years on and off prison and fighting for his reputation. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26703&LangID=E
In the latest move, a #Russia court ordered he stop using his own lawyer who has been defending him for years, and engage a state appointed counsel. We say: this is a violation of his right to a fair trial; the legal proceeding aim at silencing him and delegitimizing his work
Mr. Dmitriev has dedicated his life to the search for truth about, and the commemoration of, victims of Stalin’s Great Purge of the 1930s, including identifying the locations of execution sites and mass graves, and naming the people buried in them.
"In contrast to Mr. Dmitriev’s tireless efforts to shine a light on this dark period, no official body in #Russia has ever been mandated to establish, in an open and transparent manner, a full public record, and thus public memory, of the atrocities." http://www.gulagmuseum.org/start.do;jsessionid=32805785B1523CCD8515F714587225FD?&language=2
Not only is #Russia failing to uphold the right to truth owed to the victims, families and the larger society, they are attempting to prevent legitimate research and to re-write the history books to play down the true extent of the crimes committed during the Great Purge
