Professional Background
Stanislav Dmitrievsky is a human rights advocate and the editor-in-chief of Pravo-zashchita (Rights Defense), a monthly newspaper of the now banned Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS). The Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance, a local human rights NGO, was recently founded by Dmitrievsky and other activists to continue the human rights work of its predecessor, the RCFS. Dmitrievsky is also the chief director of the Russian-Chechen Information Agency, an independent media outlet. Stanislav Dmitrievsky and his colleague Oksana Chelysheva received the Amnesty International 2006 Special Award for Human Rights Journalism Under Threat.

Current Status
Stanislav Dmitrievsky is under continuous pressure and harassment by the Russian authorities to halt his human rights activities. As a consequence of his 2005 four-year probation and two-year suspended sentence, Dmitrievsky is at risk of immediate imprisonment at any time. During the four-year period of his sentence, Dmitrievsky will have to inform the authorities as to any change of residence or travel plans and will have to report regularly to the local authorities. Any violation of these conditions or a further criminal conviction could result in him being imprisoned for two years. His lawyers are appealing against the sentence.

On March 20, 2008, the authorities in Nizhny Novgorod launched a new wave of raids on the offices of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance. The police confiscated all computers as well as the mobile phone of Dmitrievsky and then sealed off the building until further notice. These recent raids have totally paralyzed the work of the Foundation, which was busy developing a project initiated by the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society on the application of international law to the assessment of the armed conflict in Chechnya. According to Dmitrievsky, the order to search the offices of the Foundation to Support Tolerance was signed by Vladimir Kozitsyn, chief investigator at the regional prosecutor’s office, and a special unit has been formed at the regional prosecutor’s office to investigate the case. Reports indicated that Dmitrievsky and a number of his colleagues remain subject to constant police surveillance. 

Case History
Criminal investigation of the RCFS and its executive director, Stanislav Dmitrievsky, by the Federal Security Bureau was initiated in January 2005 on charges of inciting hatred between national groups and attempting to overthrow the government for publishing statements in the newspaper in March and April 2004 by Chechen rebel leaders, including the late Aslan Maskhadov.

On September 2, 2005 Dmitrievsky was charged under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code for “actions aimed at inciting hatred or hostility and at disparagement of either an individual or a group of people according to their gender, race nationality, background religious beliefs, as well as belonging to any social group that are committed publicly or though mass media outlets.” On February 3, 2006 he was found guilty at the Soviet District Court in Nizhny Novgorod of “inciting interethnic hatred by using the mass media” and was sentenced to four years of probation with a two-year suspended sentence.

The RCFS has also been subject to what is described as fiscal harassment by the federal tax department and ministry of justice. On September 22, 2005, Dmitrievsky was summoned for questioning in relation to the alleged fiscal irregularities. On November 15, 2005, a British lawyer, Bill Bowring, was denied entry to Russia, just prior to the November 16 opening of the trial against Dmitrievsky. Several members of the RCFS and the NSHR appeared as witnesses, and the trial was adjourned to November 25.

Dmitrievsky fears for the future of the RCFS under the new NGO law introduced in January 2006 which bars people “convicted and incarcerated by the decision of a court of law” from involvement in such organizations. The Nizhny Novgorod court ordered that the Society be closed because of Dmitrievsky’s conviction in February. Under the new legislation, no person who has a conviction can head an NGO. On January 23, 2007 the Russian Supreme Court upheld the ruling to shut down the RCFS.

In addition, from February to April 2005, RCFS members and Stanislav Dmitrievsky and colleague Oksana Chelysheva in particular, were subjected to a smear campaign that was launched in mass media venues of Nizhny Novgorod. On March 14, 2005, threatening leaflets were distributed in the neighborhood of Nizhny Novgorod where RCFS editor Oksana Chelysheva lives. The leaflets, which gave her home address, labeled Chelysheva as a traitor, a supporter and a helper of "terrorist" activities carried out by Chechen fighters, and claimed that she was financed by them. The authors of these leaflets are yet to be identified.

On March 22, 2007, police officers in Nizhny Novgorod came to the office of the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance, with the apparent intention of detaining Dmitrievsky and Chelysheva. The police was deterred when Dmitrievsky and Chelysheva informed them of their intention to contact international human rights organizations and foreign diplomats in Moscow. On the same day Dmitrievsky’s mother received another visit by a policeman, who claimed to have a list of alleged skin-heads that included her son’s name, which is unlike Dmitrievsky. After a longer conversation and some phone calls he apologized and explained that he was following an order.