RFE/RL: EU tells Russia 'protect human rights defenders' - Jun. 28, 2018

RFE/RL: EU tells Russia ‘protect human rights defenders’

Russian historian Yury Dmitriyev, who heads rights group Memorial's branch in Karelia, gestures outside a court building following the verdict in his child pornography trial in the city of Petrozavodsk in northwestern Russia on April 5, 2018.A Russian gulag historian who has exhumed Stalin-era mass graves was on April 5, 2018 found not guilty of child pornography charges and released following a trial that supporters have denounced as a sham.

Photo by AFP

The European Union has called on Russian authorities to drop the criminal cases against human rights activists Oyub Titiyev and Yury Dmitriyev, saying they are facing “questionable” charges.

“Russia’s international commitments include an obligation to protect human rights defenders. The European Union expects the Russian authorities to abide to these commitments,” Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini, said in a statement on June 27, a day after a court in Chechnya confirmed Titiyev’s pretrial detention until July 9.