Aslan Adaev, a Chechen refugee living in Sweden, was appointed editor-in-chief for Kavkaz-Center in autumn 2006. Subsequently, in July 2007, Russia put out an international warrant against him through Interpol (1); unfortunately Russia is still allowed to misuse Interpol in order to pursue political dissidents also abroad.
An extradition of Adaev was requested by Sweden. However, the Swedish Supreme Court found the grounds for the request being political (2), and the Swedish government denied the Russian request in July 2008 (3). This setback didn't stop the Russian authorities - by threatening and detaining Adayev's relatives living in Chechnya, he was forced to stop his journalistic activities in Sweden.
A footnote: Aslan Adaev (or Adayev) has won a case against Russia at the European
Court of Human Rights already in 2005 (Appl. no. 36378/02)(4), but still he
is harassed by Russia through Interpol.
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On February 25, 2010, came into force a decision of the Supreme Court of Russia
to declare "Caucasus Emirate" a terrorist organization (5). The Caucasus
Emirate was set up by the Chechen leader Doku Umarov in 2007, as the continuation
of the Chechen military resistance against the Russian invasion of Chechnya,
which was started in 1999.
According to the Supreme Court, the decision will increase the ability of law
enforcement agencies to bring into criminal responsibility not only active
members of the military resistance:
"but also its supporters and ideologists engaged in activities aimed at the continuing function of the organization, including via information support."
According to Russian press sources (6), this decision allows Russia's law enforcement agencies, among other things, to prosecute Russians, directly or indirectly supporting the activities of Kavkaz-Center - the website, which is the primary means of mass media "Caucasus Emirate". So far, there are no reports how this "guilt by association" shall be implemented, as such a rule isn't legal according to Swedish legislation. President Medvedev's recent accusation (7) about Sweden helping Chechen "bandits" has in Russian web sources been related to the Supreme Court's decision and the victimization of Kavkaz-Center.
Links:
(1) Interpol Wanted.
(2) Ria Novosti 11/06/2008
(3) CK about Sweden's refusal in
2008
(4) Strasbourg verdict in
2005
(5) Supreme Court decision
(6) Newsru article about
new pressure against KC
(7) The Local about
Medvedevs accusation
................
Mikael Storsjö
Helsinki, Finland