Human Rights NGO Attacked in Russia

The following is an exclusive translation of breaking news from Lenta.ru. It appears that the offices of the civil society organization “For Human Rights” – headed up by Lev Ponomarev (photographed at right during 2007 protest arrest), the individual responsible for exposing torture practices in Russia’s prisons on this blog – have been attacked. Representatives of the movement «For human rights» have reported of an attack on their office Representatives of the movement «For human rights» have reported that on Wednesday late in the evening, persons in civilian clothing burst into the apartment on Maly Kislovsky pereulok, where the office of the human rights organization is situated, demanding that the premises be vacated.

As lawyer Svetlana Davydova told the radio station «Echo Moskvy», the people who burst into the apartment asserted that they are the owners of the facility, which, in her words, does not correspond to reality.Leader of the movement «For human rights» Lev Ponomarev told «Echo Moskvy» that his colleagues called the police, however the representatives of the law-enforcement organs asked the parties to work things out amongst themselves and drove off.Davydova and her colleague Karinna Moskalenko noted that at the moment of the attack on the apartment they were working on an application to the European Court, the submission deadline for which expires on 10 April. In connection with what took place, they underlined, work on the appeal to the court may be aborted.