A court docket in Russia has ordered the shutdown of the nation’s oldest human rights organisation, the Moscow Helsinki Group, amid a relentless crackdown on voices crucial of the Kremlin.
The NGO was established in 1976 by Soviet dissidents and produced common studies on human rights abuses throughout the nation.
A decide reportedly took lower than 20 minutes to rule in favour of a movement by the Justice Ministry to dissolve the group, which was one of many final unbiased human rights organisations in Russia.
The ministry has accused the NGO of violating its authorized registration in Moscow by engaged on human rights instances exterior of the Russian capital.
The organisation has described the accusations as ‘minute and absurd’ saying the court docket resolution was a critical blow to the human rights motion, not solely in Russia but in addition the world.
Since its invasion of Ukraine virtually two years in the past, the Kremlin has cracked down on rights teams, unbiased media shops, and opposition activists that present any signal of dissent.
The compelled closure of the Moscow Helsinki Group comes simply 13 months after the identical Moscow court docket shut down one other veteran human rights organisation, the Memorial Human Rights Centre, additionally on the ministry’s request.