For having sullied the “honour and dignity” of FPS chief Kalinin.

The circumstances that gave rise to the charging of human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov (Ponomarev) date back to spring of last year. However, a criminal case against him has only been activated now, when the Aleksanyan affair is in full swing. The head of the For Human Rights movement has been playing a most active role in defending the imprisoned ex-Yukos counsel and manager Vasily Aleksanyan. It was in connection with the plight of Aleksanyan that Lev Ponomaryov gave numerous public statements concerning the activities of the Federal Penitentiary Service headed by Yury Kalinin.

On Friday an investigator from the prosecutor’s office of the central administrative district in Moscow announced that Mr Ponomaryov would be charged under Article 129.3 of the RF Criminal Code (Slander ... “accusing a person of committing a grave or especially grave crime”, an offence that might lead to imprisonment ) in relation to Yury Kalinin and that the measure of restraint would be the accused’s agreement not to leave the country. What served as the pretext for charging Lev Ponomaryov who is actively involved as a leading figure in a variety of human rights NGOs, as well as being an expert adviser to the RF ombudsman for human rights, Vladimir Lukin?

On 23 April 2007 the Presnensky district court in Moscow ruled that Ponomaryov had falsely asserted that General Kalinin was responsible for the aspects of torture embodied in Russia’s penitentiary system. The defendant had used the word “author”, in the sense of guilty party, meaning that Kalinin bears overall responsibility for any violations of human rights that take place in the state-funded organisation under his charge.

(www.zashita.ru-zk.org 22 February 2008)

Lev Alexandrovich Ponomaryov (Ponomarev), born 1941, is executive director of the all Russian movement For Human Rights, deputy chairman of the Human Rights Defence foundation, board chairman of the Hot Line NGO, a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group and expert adviser to Vladimir Lukin, RF ombudsman for human rights.