Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-18-Speech-4-298"
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"en.20081218.40.4-298"2
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".
I am sorry about the confusion earlier regarding the order of my speech.
I will finish – I am now using the extra minute of speaking time, as agreed – by repeating something that a colleague in my group, Mr Horáček, said. Last July he recalled that the prisoners in the Yukos case, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, are detained in the Siberian prison of Chita. There are others too.
I would therefore like to request that we do everything in our power to secure their release, and also encourage Russia to make freedom of opinion and freedom of the press a reality and not to hinder the work of NGOs. All these factors are vitally important for our common future in Europe.
Human rights and freedom are the most important pillars of the European Union and they must also underpin our dialogue with Russia.
Unfortunately, the list of violations is getting longer by the day, and the difficulty facing human rights activists in their work is also getting worse from day to day.
Several violations of human rights have taken place in recent months, among many others. The home of Stanislav Dmitrievsky, a consultant to the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for the Promotion of Tolerance, has been attacked. Armed troops have kidnapped and beaten Zurab Tsetchoev, a human rights defender in Ingushetia. Relatives of Ilyas Timishev, a human rights lawyer, have been detained, questioned and ill-treated.
I would also recall here that last week, on 12 December, the Spanish government decided to extradite Murat Gasayev to Russia. Mr Gasayev, a Russian citizen from Chechnya, was detained by the Russian secret service in 2004 and tortured for three days, according to Amnesty International.
Mr Gasayev fled to Spain, where he sought asylum in 2005. His application was turned down on the basis of a confidential report drawn up by the Spanish authorities to which neither he nor his lawyer had access.
Spain is a signatory to the Convention against Torture, and his extradition is based on the diplomatic assurances given by the Russian authorities for it to go ahead.
Countless reports by human rights organisations have repeatedly raised concerns about the use of torture in the Russian Federation, particularly in the republics of the northern Caucasus, such as Chechnya and Ingushetia.
If Murat Gasayev is extradited, there is a very real danger that he will be subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment once he is in Russian custody."@en1
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