Joint statement on offenses committed against election observers
Russian civic, political and human rights movements and organizations, sharing the values such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, outraged by gangster methods to counter public control over the elections in our country.
In 26 April 2015, the most outrageous case was reported in the Election in Zheleznodarozhniy city of Moscow Region, where observers successfully prevented ballot stuffing, the person who was stuffing ballots was detained; the evidence incriminating intruders was collected. After that, the observers were attacked with the purpose to destroy the evidence of the attempt to stuff ballots, as a result the observers were seriously injured, and their photo and video equipment was destroyed and stolen. One of the observers, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, suffers from a concussion, lung injury and rupture of the spleen; as a result it was removed. The life of S. Pozdnyakov was under threat.
Crimes commited against observers imply public hazard as the very essence of elections is neglected, criminalizing it. Such crimes and especially the impunity for commiting it undermine the legitimacy of the elected government and its credibility.
Since the crimes were commited, we have not noticed any effective efforts to investigate the crime, to find and penalize the offenders, but, on the contrary, we have faced the attempts to conceal the evidence and justify the bandits, carried out by senior officials representing election commissions.
The last particularly outrageous aspect is the use of violence against the observers that cannot be discussed apart from the fraud, they have tried to prevent.
We require as soon as possible finding the perpetrators, organizers and instigators of the attack against the observers and bring them to justice.
Our organizations intend to carry out public control over the investigation and launch a campaign to support the victims - observers and present information on the investigation.
We will keep our attention and efforts until the perpetrators are punished.
June 23, 2015
The statement was signed by*:
Movement advocating for the Rights of Voters ‘Golos’
United Democratic Movement ‘Solidarity’
Interregional Public Observers Movement ‘Sonar’
Public organization ‘Interregional Association of Voters’
Public organization ‘Observers of Saint Petersburg and the Northwest region’
Project ‘Citizen Observer’
Movement ‘For Human Rights’
Movement ‘Open Russia’
Historical and Educational Society ‘Memorial’
Interregional Association of Human Rights Organizations ‘AGORA’
Moscow Helsinki Group
Human Rights Council of St. Petersburg
Human Rights Centre ‘Memorial’
Libertarian Party of Russia
Party ‘5th of December’
Progress Party
Political party ‘Democratic Choice’
Political party ‘RPR-PARNAS"
Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO
Weekly press covering social and political affairs ‘Zhukovskiye news’ * If your organization or movement wants to join this statement:
Publish the text by adding your organization/ movement to the list.
Send the link to the statement to stop.crime.against.observers@gmail.com. We will update the list of organizations that have joined the statement.
The statement (PDF, Ru)
