Memorial St Petersburg - update

[Josephine von Zitzewitz]

Dear colleagues,

To all those of you who signed the open letter to President Medvedev in 
support of "Memorial" St Petersburg.

Irina Flige, the director, wishes to thank everyone who is supporting 
the organisation at this difficult time. There has been some progress in 
the case and "Memorial" issued a press-release which (in Russian) which 
I can send to anyone interested; a brief summary below.

With best wishes,

Josephine von Zitzewitz

--------

On 12 December Irina Flige was summoned for questioning to the 
Prosecutor's Office.

All questions asked concerned the possibility of a link between 
"Memorial" and the newspaper "Novyi Peterburg"; the prosecutor, 
Kalganov, refused to give reasons for the raid on "Memorial", saying 
that they would be given "during our next meetings".  "Memorial's 
lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, was present during the interrogation.

At the end of the interrogation the prosecutor promised that the 
confiscated hard drives would be returned to "Memorial" on Monday 15 
December; he did not specify whether all drives would be returned or 
only part of them. In view of the fact that they contain a large amount 
of data, the Prosecutor's Office, he said,  would copy the content of 
the drives and then return the hardware.

Memorial's lawyer has registered a complaint with the local court of the 
Dzerzhinskii Raion of St Petersburg.

Memorial wishes to thank all organisations and individuals, foreign as 
well as Russian, who stood up for Memorial; this support may have been 
crucial. [List of supporters in press release].

Hopefully there will be good news soon.

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