The Human Rights Center «Memorial» told what things the security forces examined and confiscated in the apartments of the employees of the «International Memorial» and the Moscow offices of the organization during searches in the case of the rehabilitation of Nazism on March 21.
During investigative actions in the apartments, the security forces, among other things, examined a jar of flour, a refrigerator, suitcases with summer clothes, Christmas decorations, personal photographs, a trash can, cat litter, linen, and also looked under the toilet lid. One of the law enforcement officers tore open the sugar packets, saying that there «could be LSD.»
Searchs at Memorial’s employees
Stickers of «Memorial», a mask with the inscription «Memorial cannot be banned», a «No to war» badge, a book about the First Chechen War, a 2007 calendar and a Soviet passport were confiscated from the employees. Human rights «Memorial» reports that one of the security officials said that the USSR is «banned extremist organization«.
According to the Human Rights Center, the investigator's decision on the searches stated that Memorial employees may have «instruments and means of committing a crime, objects with traces of a crime.»
In the offices of the International Memorial, the security forces “treated themselves” with vodka and “stole coffee and sweets that were prepared for gifts to the repressed, ate something right on the premises,” the human rights center adds. Law enforcement officers left the inscription “To the fucking creature” on the template of the letter intended for victims of political repression.
This is the inscription left by the security forces on the letter. The letterhead for the memorable dates of the victims of repression was taken in one of the offices.
9/10 pic.twitter.com/lIgPbqs81O— Full HRC 2.0 (@hrc_memorial) March 23, 2023
On March 21, searches took place at the head of the Memorial council Oleg Orlov, chairman of the board of the society Jan Rachinsky, deputy chairman Nikita Petrov, curator of cultural and educational programs of Alexandra Polivanova, her mother, as well as from the keeper of the archive of «Memorial» Galina Iordanskaya, employees of Alena Kozlova, Irina Ostrovskaya and Alexander Guryanov.
All human rights defenders were interrogated in the UK, after which they were released — they are in the status of witnesses. At the same time, Orlov became a defendant in a criminal case on the “discrediting” of the army because of a post on Facebook — he was ordered not to leave (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code).
The case on the rehabilitation of Nazism was initiated against “unidentified employees” «Memorial» in early March (paragraph «c» of part 2 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). The reason for this, as it turned out later, was the mention in the list of «Victims of political terror in the USSR» of three people who are not considered rehabilitated.