Latest news with #GrigoryMelkonyants
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Russian court jails prominent election monitoring activist for 5 years
Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Russia's leading independent election monitoring group Golos(Photo: AP) A court in Moscow on Wednesday convicted one of the leaders of a prominent independent election monitoring group on charges of organizing the work of an "undesirable" organization and sentenced him to five years in prison. Grigory Melkonyants , co-chair of Russia's leading election watchdog Golos , has rejected the charges as politically motivated. The case against him is part of the monthslong crackdown on Kremlin critics and rights activists that the government ratcheted up after invading Ukraine in 2022. After a judge of the Basmanny District Court delivered the verdict, Melkonyants, 44, told several dozen supporters and journalists from the glass defendant's cage: "Don't worry, I'm not despairing. You shouldn't despair either!" Golos has monitored for and exposed violations in every major election in Russia since it was founded in 2000. Over the years, it has faced mounting pressure from the authorities. In 2013, the group was designated as a "foreign agent" - a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Three years later, it was liquidated as a non-governmental organization by Russia's Justice Ministry. Golos has continued to operate without registering as an NGO, exposing violations in various elections, and in 2021 it was added to a new registry of "foreign agents," created by the Justice Ministry for groups that are not registered as a legal entity in Russia. It has not been designated as "undesirable" - a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense. But when it was an NGO, it was a member of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, or ENEMO, a group that was declared "undesirable" in Russia in 2021, and the charges against Melkonyants stemmed from that. In his closing statement to the court on Monday, published in full by independent news outlets Mediazona and Meduza, Melkonyants talked about how rights and freedoms often are taken for granted but look very different from "behind bars," and it's clear how much one must constantly "protect and defend" them. The defense argued that when ENEMO was outlawed in Russia, Golos wasn't a member, and Melkonyants had nothing to do with it. The renowned election expert and lawyer by training was arrested in August 2023 and has been in custody ever since. Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia's Central Election Commission, the country's main election authority, spoke out in his support at the time, telling Russian business daily Vedomosti about the case: "I would really like to hope that they will handle this objectively. Because his criticism, often professional, helped us a lot sometimes." Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years that intensified significantly amid the war in Ukraine. Multiple independent news outlets and rights groups have been shut down, labeled as "foreign agents" or outlawed as "undesirable." Hundreds of activists and critics of the Kremlin have faced criminal charges. Melkonyants' defense team said after the verdict that they will appeal. Lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told reporters that "there is no evidence" in the case that he and others on the defense team consider "politically motivated, pretentious." "We will fight for Grigory's freedom, because an illegal, unjust verdict should not exist. It should not stand (in the appeal proceedings). We all hope that the law will prevail," Biryukov said. With the time Melkonyants has already spent in detention taken into account, he will have to serve less than half of the term he was handed down, according to Mediazona. Memorial, Russia's prominent human rights group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, has designated Melkonyants as a political prisoner .
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Russia sentences election watchdog Grigory Melkonyants to 5 years in prison
May 14 (UPI) -- A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced well-known election watchdog Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison after it found him guilty of allegedly working for a so-called "undesirable" organization. "Don't worry, I'm not despairing," Melkonyants was quoted telling supporters after the sentence was handed down by Moscow's Basmanny District Court in a latest blow to free speech in Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime. "You shouldn't despair either!" he reportedly stated. Melkonyants, who has been in custody since his August 2023 arrest, co-founded Russia's most respected and prominent election monitoring group which in 2013 was designated as a "foreign agent" by Russian authorities. The charge stems from alleged ties to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which was declared "undesirable" by the Russian state in 2021. Melkonyants has denied the allegations. Three years later, Golos -- which means "vote" in Russian -- was liquidated as a non-governmental organization but despite court orders, continued to publish reports on Russia's local and national elections, which international experts contend were not free or fair. "Grigory Melkonyants has committed no crime," Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Wednesday in a statement in calling for his "unconditional" release. Struthers says his only "offense" was "defending the right to free and fair elections," and that Russian authorities "instigated this criminal case in order to silence one of the country's most respected election observers." The election monitoring group was long-accused by Russian officials of multiple violations and for allegedly being tainted by money it received from the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development. "Golos gave rise to a massive election monitoring movement in Russia in 2011, then the protests began which gave Putin quite a scare," according to Leonid Volkov, a close associate of late Russian political opposition leader Alexei Navalny. "So many years have passed, and he still seeks revenge," he wrote on social media. Melkonyants expressed worry for the group's 3,000 election monitors during Russia's 2011 elections as it came under fire while Putin, then prime minister, was ultimately re-elected to succeed then-President Dmitry Medvedev for another term. Meanwhile, the Britain-headquartered Amnesty International considers him a "prisoner of conscience" who was prosecuted and imprisoned solely for peaceful activism. "The international community cannot remain silent," Amnesty's Struthers added Wednesday. "Neither on this appalling verdict nor on the outrageous assault on civic space that is taking place in Russia." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia sentences election watchdog Grigory Melkonyants to 5 years in prison
May 14 (UPI) -- A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced well-known election watchdog Grigory Melkonyants to five years in prison after it found him guilty of allegedly working for a so-called "undesirable" organization. "Don't worry, I'm not despairing," Melkonyants was quoted telling supporters after the sentence was handed down by Moscow's Basmanny District Court in a latest blow to free speech in Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime. "You shouldn't despair either!" he reportedly stated. Melkonyants, who has been in custody since his August 2023 arrest, co-founded Russia's most respected and prominent election monitoring group which in 2013 was designated as a "foreign agent" by Russian authorities. The charge stems from alleged ties to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, which was declared "undesirable" by the Russian state in 2021. Melkonyants has denied the allegations. Three years later, Golos -- which means "vote" in Russian -- was liquidated as a non-governmental organization but despite court orders, continued to publish reports on Russia's local and national elections, which international experts contend were not free or fair. "Grigory Melkonyants has committed no crime," Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Wednesday in a statement in calling for his "unconditional" release. Struthers says his only "offense" was "defending the right to free and fair elections," and that Russian authorities "instigated this criminal case in order to silence one of the country's most respected election observers." The election monitoring group was long-accused by Russian officials of multiple violations and for allegedly being tainted by money it received from the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development. "Golos gave rise to a massive election monitoring movement in Russia in 2011, then the protests began which gave Putin quite a scare," according to Leonid Volkov, a close associate of late Russian political opposition leader Alexei Navalny. "So many years have passed, and he still seeks revenge," he wrote on social media. Melkonyants expressed worry for the group's 3,000 election monitors during Russia's 2011 elections as it came under fire while Putin, then prime minister, was ultimately re-elected to succeed then-President Dmitry Medvedev for another term. Meanwhile, the Britain-headquartered Amnesty International considers him a "prisoner of conscience" who was prosecuted and imprisoned solely for peaceful activism. "The international community cannot remain silent," Amnesty's Struthers added Wednesday. "Neither on this appalling verdict nor on the outrageous assault on civic space that is taking place in Russia."
The Hindu
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Russia jails prominent vote monitor for five years
Russia on Wednesday (May 14, 2025) sentenced a high-profile election monitor to five years in prison, part of an intensifying crackdown by the Kremlin against independent critics and opponents. Grigory Melkonyants, 44, is the co-chair of the Russian vote-monitoring NGO Golos, which records alleged fraud in Russian elections. "Melkonyants is found guilty and sentenced to five years in a general regime prison colony," state media reported the judge as saying in Moscow's Basmanny district court. Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023, as part of a crackdown on Kremlin critics and opponents that has accelerated amid Moscow's military offensive on Ukraine. Prosecutors accused him of working with a European election monitoring association— the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations — outlawed as an "undesirable organisation" in Russia. Being declared "undesirable" effectively bans the group from operating in Russia and makes anyone who works for or collaborates with them liable to prosecution. Melkonyants proclaimed his innocence throughout the trial and denounced conditions in the jail where he was being held. He said he had been forced to change cell eight times and had more than 100 different cellmates since his arrest. In his final statement to the court earlier this week he said he felt "joy at having become stronger though this ordeal and not losing faith. "During these years, hundreds of thousands of honest and well-educated people have become observers," he added. His lawyer Mikhail Biryukov has denounced the charges as "baseless". The authorities want to "intimidate many independent observers so they give up monitoring or remain silent about what they see during these elections", said Biryukov. Russia had labelled Golos a "foreign agent" — a term used to stigmatise and target independent civil society and media outlets — but it disbanded and reformed as a new entity. The group runs an online interactive map with reports of election violations in national and regional ballots across Russia. Independent observers have long denounced Russian votes as neither free nor fair. Russian President Vladimir Putin was re-elected last year with 87 percent of the vote in a contest in which all genuine competitors were barred from standing. International and domestic observers have for years reported widespread ballot stuffing and voter coercion.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russian election monitor sentenced to 5 years over 'undesirable' organization links
A Moscow court on May 14 sentenced Grigory Melkonyants, the co-chair of independent Russian election monitor Golos, to five years in prison over allegedly participating in activities of an "undesirable" organization. Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with Golos's claimed links to the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), a Montenegro-based international network of election monitors working in Europe and Central Asia. Russia branded ENEMO as an "undesirable" organization – a legal classification used to repress the regime's perceived opponents – in September 2021. Prosecutors have called for a six-year sentence and claimed that Golos was a structural part of ENEMO, which Melkonyants and the network both denied. The Montenegro-based network has said it has not interacted with Golos since 2021. Independent news outlet Mediazona noted that neither the Golos association – the original iteration of the organization dissolved after being branded a "foreign agent" – not the current Golos movement has been named an "undesirable" organization. Melkonyants was also banned from public activities for nine years after serving his sentence. The prison term will count since the start of his pretrial detention in 2023. The case has been largely described as part of the Kremlin's crackdown on civil society. Golos, in its various forms, has monitored Russian elections since 2000. It has faced hostility from the Kremlin for highlighting widespread electoral violations — most notably during the 2012 presidential election, which marked Vladimir Putin's return to power. The crackdown against the organization has only intensified after the outbreak of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Golos's members have openly criticized the war. Read also: Will Putin meet Zelensky? As Ukraine, Russia peace talks loom, all eyes are on Kremlin's next move We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
