Oslo, March 22 (AFP\/APP): The Nobel Committee in charge of the Peace Prize on Wednesday condemned the legal actions and what it called “unfounded” charges against members of the prize-winning Russian human rights organisation Memorial.<\/p>\n
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee deplores the arrest of and legal actions taken against Jan Rachinsky and other leading members of Memorial,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The charges made against them are unfounded and must be dropped,” she said.<\/p>\n
The rights group said Tuesday that Russian authorities had opened a criminal case against Oleg Orlov, the co-chair of Memorial, for “discrediting” the army.<\/p>\n
The announcement came after security officials raided the homes of several Memorial employees including Orlov, 69, and Rachinsky, its 64-year-old co-founder, earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
Memorial established itself as a pillar of civil society by preserving the memory of victims of communist repression and campaigning against rights violations in Russia under President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
The raids took place after investigators accused Memorial staff of allegedly including World War Two-era Nazi collaborators on their list of victims of political terror, the organisation said.<\/p>\n
Memorial was disbanded by Russian authorities in late 2021, just months before Putin sent troops to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“(I have) constant pain and shame for the horror that our army is creating in a neighbouring sovereign state,” Orlov told AFP last year.<\/p>\n
Memorial received the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with the jailed Belorusian activist Ales Bialiatski and Ukraine’s Centre for Civil Liberties.<\/p>\n
Rachinsky said last year that the prize came as a surprise and would give all Russian rights defenders “new strength and inspiration”.<\/p>\n
After the start of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, Russian authorities expanded a crackdown on dissent, jailing or pushing into exile nearly all prominent Kremlin critics.<\/p>\n
Public criticism of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oslo, March 22 (AFP\/APP): The Nobel Committee in charge of the Peace Prize on Wednesday condemned the legal actions and what it called “unfounded” charges against members of the prize-winning Russian human rights organisation Memorial. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee deplores the arrest of and legal […]<\/p>\n
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