Three Russian protestors jailed

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday November 24, 2005 17:55 by Socialist Party info at socialistparty dot net

Two members of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) in Russia and a sympathizer were arrested yesterday

Two members of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) in Russia and a sympathizer were arrested yesterday at a protest outside Russia's State Duma.
The Parliament passed a bill yesterday making it illegal for NGOs to obtain foreign funding and dramatically increasing the difficulties with registration. In future every organization will have to register every year, in Russia's bureaucratic system a nightmare job, and will also be subject to random inspection.
This is in response to the "orange revolution" that has spread across the region. Russia's ruling elite don’t want any problems in the run up to the election.
In a peaceful but unsanctioned protest a number of protesters were arrested and some fined a thousand rubles each - about €30.
However, Alexei Kozlov, I. Nenyenko and A. Parimov were tried and sentenced to three days in prison. We have so far been unable to determine where they are being held and all enquires to the police station to which they were first taken are referred to the press office.
Can you please send faxes or emails to the Russian embassies in your country demanding the immediate release of the three and send copies to pabgem@online.ru

Comradely greetings
Rob Jones
Moscow