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| Activists consider the liquidation of the 'Council of Elders of the Balkar people' illegal | |
| 2023-03-20 | |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [KavkazUzel] The decision to liquidate the "Council of Elders of the Balkarian people"
The "Caucasian Kno " has reported that on March 9, the Nalchik City Court, on the suit of the Ministry of Justice, liquidated the public organization "Council of Elders of the Balkar People", deciding that the organization did not hold congresses in accordance with the charter and did not keep records of its work. The court also recognized as a call for extremism the statement of the chairman of the organization Ismail Sabanchiev, published in the newspaper "Vestnik Balkarian people" in February 2022. The defendant's representative did not appear at the meeting, and the summons sent to the organization was returned to the court marked "the storage period has expired," the court said. The "Council of Elders of the Balkar People" was not informed about the lawsuit and intends to appeal the court's decision, the head of the organization Ismail Sabanchiev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent today. "We were completely unaware of the lawsuit. We were not informed. And they only found out about the decision now. We were not even questioned. so that the decision is canceled, and everyone who participated in the adoption of this [controversial] decision were themselves deprived of their posts," he said. There were no violations of the charter of the Council of Elders, Sabanchiev assured. "We are not fully aware of what we have presented. But as for the frequency of the congresses, we only asked to officially postpone this year's congress for a month due to special circumstances. The fact is that the members of the Council are mostly citizens over 55 years old. Many live in remote mountainous areas with which communication is difficult, especially in this harsh winter. There were snowfalls, roads were blocked. We officially raised the issue with the Department of Justice to postpone the convention for a month. This is allowed by the charter and law. We do not refuse to hold the congress. After all, all the years of the existence of the Council of Elders, we held congresses in accordance with the Charter," said Ismail Sabanchiev. The head of the organization added that he had no information about new accusations of extremism, but recalled that they had already tried to close the organization. In May 2010, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, at the suit of the prosecutor's office, ruled to liquidate the "Council of Elders of the Balkarian people of the KBR," considering its activities extremist. In July of the same year, the Supreme Court of Russia overturned this decision . Earlier, in July 2007, the prosecutor also issued a warning to Ismail Sabanchiev about the inadmissibility of extremist activity. “They have already tried to liquidate us. The Supreme Court of the KBR tried without any reason. We appealed, and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned the decision of the Supreme Court of the KBR. Then Oyus Gurtuev wrote an appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office. It was reprinted in Vestnik. case on extremism. We filed a lawsuit for illegal initiation of a case. It turned out that the case was dismissed, with the right to compensate for moral damage. But they did not make an official apology. Then I wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee. And after that, the prosecutor came and brought official written apologies. So it's not clear what they want to re-excite?" Sabanchiev said. Tamara Gerieva, editor of the Bulletin of the Balkarian People and member of the Council of Elders, also said that the representatives of the organization were not informed of the claim of the Ministry of Justice. In addition, according to her, they recently won an administrative lawsuit to recognize the newspaper's materials as extremist. “Recently, I have often been within the walls of this court. We won an administrative lawsuit directed against us, where we were accused of extremism. This is also because of the disputes about the Kanzhal battle . When we considered the liquidation lawsuit, we were in the same court, simultaneously participating as defendants in another case, that is, for some reason no one found an opportunity to notify us of a new lawsuit," she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. Tamara Gerieva added that she had already demanded the documents of the court decision on the liquidation of the Council. "We promised next week. And after that, of course, we will appeal," she said. In her opinion, in addition to long-standing problems, the persecution of the Council of Elders may be associated with new issues regarding land sales. "The reason for the elimination of the Council of Elders of the Balkar people of the KBR is the sale of the Elbrus ski resort, so that we do not raise this issue and do not interfere in the seizure of the historical territory of the indigenous long-suffering Balkar people," Gerieva believes. In recent years, the Council of Elders has not shown any noticeable activity, said Valery Khatazhukov, Chairman of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Human Rights Center. "In recent years, they have not been doing anything special. They have not made any statements, comments on current events," he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, adding that he does not yet know all the details of the decision to liquidate. Recall that in February 2020, Ismail Sabanchiev reported that dozens of young people broke into the hall where the congress of the Council of Elders of the Balkar people agreed with the authorities was held and prevented it. He considered the disruption of the congress a planned action. The incident was an attempt to gain control over the Council of Elders, congress delegate Zoya Alikaeva suggested at the time. "SSBN is the only organization that protects the interests of the Balkar people. There are other public organizations, but they don't know what they do. No one attacks them, because they don't do anything," she told the "Caucasian Knot". | |
| Posted by:badanov |