Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

Defending Human Rights

Russia continued to prosecute several human rights activists in 1998. At the time of this writing, Krasnadar human rights activist Vasily Chaikin, accused of sexual intercourse with a minor, depraved sexual activities, and production or sale of pornographic materials, was finally facing trial after a criminal investigation riddled with procedural violations and outrageously long delays in court. The criminal cases against human rights activists Yury Shadrin (from Omsk) and Yury Padalko (from Irkutsk) on apparently fabricated charges lingered, keeping both activists under a constant threat of renewed arrest. In April, Viktor Prudnikov, an activist from Tyumen, was beaten up when detained on administrative charges of contempt of court and petty hooliganism. Oleg Pazyura, an activist from Murmansk, was found guilty of threatening a judge but was released under the State Duma’s November 1997 amnesty.

Arrested on April 17, 1997, Chaikin was at first denied access to a lawyer of his own choice. Over the course of the investigation, the prosecution rejected every defense complaint or request, and videotapes that police confiscated at Chaikin’s home reportedly disappeared and were replaced with other tapes containing pornographic materials. The prosecution did not allow Chaikin and his lawyer to read all the case materials. According to Chaikin’s lawyer, the prosecutor removed all defense requests and complaints from the materials of the case before sending the case to court and replaced them with falsified documents stating that the defense team had no complaints and had read all the case materials.

At trial, several women who had given incriminating evidence during the investigation testified that police forced them to do so. An initial court decision in December 1997 to return the case for further investigation was overturned by a higher court, and the case was re-heard. Meanwhile, Chaikin continued to be held in detention.