10 июня 2008 Года
RUSSIA DROPS CHARGES AGAINST NGO BOSS MOSCOW, June 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Interior Ministry investigators formally dropped currency smuggling charges on Tuesday against the head of a U.S.-funded NGO, the case earlier criticized by rights groups as an attack on civil freedoms, her lawyer said.
Manana Aslamazyan, a Russian national, was detained in 2007 by Russian custom officers for failing to declare foreign currency of around ,800 more than the permitted sum of ,000. Russia's Constitutional Court ruled in late May that the charges were illegal.
The ministry's investigations committee said following the ruling that it was dropping its investigation and scrapping an arrest warrant for Aslamazyan, who fled Russia after the charges were brought.
"The case files have been sent to Sheremetyevo airport's customs service along with a written decision to annul the arrest warrant," Viktor Parshutkin said, adding that customs authorities were still to decide whether to bring administrative charges against Aslamazyan.
Aslamazyan could be charged with an administrative offense, which carries a fine of 1,000 to 2,500 rubles (-6).
The Aslamazyan-led charity, which trains journalists from Russian provinces, closed down after the probe was launched more than a year ago and documents and computers were subsequently seized during a raid on its office.
Speaking from Paris on Tuesday, Aslamazyan, the joint founder of Russia's first freedom of speech organization, the Glasnost Defense Foundation, in 1991, said that she was awaiting confirmation that everything had indeed been cleared up with customs.
"I will be waiting for instructions on what to do next," she said.
The decision to drop the charges is being seen by some rights activists as a sign of a softening of attitudes with regard to non-governmental organizations under Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev.
From RIA Novosti
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