Court hearings in Leninsky district court of Saint Petersburg in a case initiated by the procurator’s office against ADC “Memorial” which were scheduled for October 14, 2013 were postponed due to absence of the third party – representative of the Ministry of justice. In spite of the postponement the court has approved some of the appeals made by the procurator’s office concerning checking bank accounts of ADC “Memorial”. The court ruled to require reports about “the transfers of money on the bank accounts of organization since they were opened until October 14, 2013”. The procurator announced its decision to use the services of a political scientist from the Russian State Pedagogical University named after Herzen to make an expertise on whether making and dissemination of a human rights report could be considered “political activity”. (ADC “Memorial” was charged for providing report “Roma people, migrants, activists – victims of police arbitrariness” to the UN Committee against torture in 2012.)
Because of the considerable number of people who wanted to be present at the court hearings ADC “Memorial” asked to move the hearings to a larger room which is reserved for court cases attracting special public attention. ADC “Memorial” also asked to provide video broadcasting of the hearings. Procurator opposed this request, claiming that “the presence of journalists creates problems for court hearings”. The judge refused the request presented by the lawyers of ADC “Memorial” and court hearings were not officially announced open to the public.
Next round of hearings is scheduled for November 11, 2013 at 11 a.m. in Leninsky district court of Saint Petersburg (13th Krasnoarmeyskaya street, 17A, judge Moroz).