Russian Historian Faces Sentencing In Case Questioned By Human Rights Group

A verdict and sentence are expected to be pronounced on July 22 in the case against Yury Dmitriyev, a Russian historian and human rights activist, whose has been tried on charges of sexually assaulting his adopted daughter — an allegation he and his supporters deny.

Prosecutors have asked a court in Russia’s northwestern Karelia region to sentence Dmitriyev to 15 years in prison.

The case dates back to 2016, when Dmitriyev was arrested on child-pornography charges based on photographs of his daughter that authorities found on his computer.

He has proclaimed his innocence, contending that the images were not pornographic and were made at the request of social workers concerned about the child’s development.

Supporters of the 64-year-old, who is also the head of the Karelia branch of the Moscow-based human rights group Memorial, have said the charges were brought against him because of his research into a side of history that complicates the Kremlin’s glorification of the Soviet past.

Dmitriyev’s decades-long efforts to expose the extent of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s crimes have been viewed with hostility by the government of President Vladimir Putin.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on July 21 expressed concerns about the verdict and sentencing.

The “circumstances surrounding criminal charges” against Dmitriyev “strongly suggest that they are spurious and target him for his human rights work,” HRW said in a statement.

In May, dozens of Russian scholars, historians, writers, poets, opposition politicians, artists, and actors signed an open letter asking the Karelia Supreme Court to release Dmitriyev, expressing concerns over the researcher’s health as coronavirus infections have been found in the detention center where he is being held.

The European Union has called on the Russian authorities to release Dmitriyev and reconsider the charges against him.

A local court acquitted Dmitriyev in April 2018, but the Karelia Supreme Court subsequently upheld an appeal by prosecutors and ordered a new trial.

The historian was rearrested in June 2018 and is currently on trial on the more severe charge of “violent acts of a sexual nature committed against a person under 14 years of age.”