“Memorial” recognized journalist Alsa Kurmasheva as a political prisoner

The human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” has recognized Alsa Kurmasheva, a journalist of the Tatar-Bashkir Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as a political prisoner.

Kurmasheva, who has US and Russian citizenship, has been in a pre-trial detention center in Kazan since the end of October on charges of violating the law on “foreign agents”. The journalist is accused of not submitting documents to the Russian authorities to include herself in the register of “foreign agents”. This is the first criminal case under this article in Russia, which was initiated against a journalist.

The head of the human rights project “Support of political prisoners. “Memorial” Sergei Davidys told “Idel.Realii” that the human rights defenders made such a decision, as they consider criminal prosecution and deprivation of liberty due to failure to fulfill the so-called obligation to voluntarily declare oneself as a “foreign agent” to be illegal. .

This is “a manifestation of authoritarian and even totalitarian tendencies, which are now widely visible in modern Russia,” according to “Memorial”.

According to this article, anyone who gathers public information about Russia’s military-technical activities is threatened with prison if they do not ask the Ministry of Justice in advance to include them in the register of “foreign agents”. Human rights activists note that this article is an indirect ban on the collection of any information related to military topics, even not related to domestic affairs.

Kurmasheva is being persecuted for her journalistic activities. Her criminal case is a warning for all journalists, especially those who work with foreign mass media and write about the war, according to “Memorial”.

Human rights activists call on the Russian authorities to stop the criminal prosecution of Alsa Kurmasheva, and release her.

Earlier, the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders, the Coalition of Women in Journalism, the National Press Club, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists and 12 other organizations appealed to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to “speed up the process and immediately announce” the journalist of the Tatar-Bashkir Radio Service The freedom of Als Kurmashev is “unlawfully detained. The recognition of an American citizen as “unlawfully detained” means that the US authorities will officially seek his release from the authorities of the relevant foreign state.

• Also Kurmasheva has US and Russian citizenship. Before her arrest, she lived in Prague with her husband and children. In the middle of May, she came to her native city of Kazan due to family circumstances. On June 2, Alsa was detained at the Kazan airport – before her flight home. Her American and Russian passports were confiscated. A few days later, a criminal case was opened against the journalist for failure to notify her of her second citizenship. The investigation of this case dragged on for several months. Only in October, the Magistrate’s Court in Kazan found her guilty and fined her 10,000 rubles. Soon after that, she was detained in a new criminal case.
• After Alsu’s detention, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Acting President Geoffrey Gedmin said he was “deeply disappointed” by the court’s decision: “We call for the immediate release of Alsu so that she can be reunited with her family.”
• Also’s detention was condemned by the US authorities and the government Canada, the Czech RepublicFrance, of Poland and Swedenas well as The Supreme Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policychapter of the European Parliament, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on issues of media freedom and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The platform of the Council of Europe to promote the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists published a call to free Alsa.