A HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN RUSSIA RISKS SEVERAL YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT

Stasya needs your urgent Support!

The Human Rights Activist Anastasia (Stasya) Denisova (Krasnodar, Russia), head of the NGO "ETHnICS" is under absurd accusations by the Russian Authorities. She could be sentenced to prison for several years.

Since 2007 Anastasia Denisova, her collegues and the NGO "ETHnICS" occurred different incidents of harrassment because of their human rights activities. You can read about this following this link

WHO IS ANASTASIA DENISOVA
Anastasia Denisova as a human rights, civil activist and expert in combating xenophobia is regularly invited as speaker at OSCE/ODIHR events about the role of youth and new methods of non-violent counteraction to hate crimes. She as well works as expert in several projects of the Youth Directorate of Council of Europe.
Anastasia is involved into Georgian-Russian Civil Dialogue and is the head of Krasnodar krai non-governmental organization Youth Group for Tolerance "ETHnICS". She has been member of the organising team of UNITED events.

THE CRIMINAL CASE
Unfortunately, the harassments evolved so rapidly that in late 2009 it came to a made up criminal case and accusation of "illegal use of objects of copyright (software) with the use of official position" and "creation of computer viruses". Maximum penalty for these crimes is up to 9 years of imprisonment. In spite of numerous law violations and the absurdness of accusation, the case has reached the court.
More details about how the criminal case was initiated and why we consider it a demonstrative pressure on a human rights defender are here.
In this respect, we ask you to support Anastasia! as soon as possible 

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT?

1. Fax and mail the appeal to the Governor of Krasnodar krai with the copy Plenipotentiary of the President of Russian in South Federal District. 
2. Visit the court trial in Krasnodar (the first open hearing will be around 1-2 April, 2010).
3. Follow the updates on the website in support of Anastasia: http://denisova.yhrm.org and her personal blog - http://ipostas.livejournal.com
4. Spread the word about the situation around Anastasia's case and pressure in Krasnodar krai in general: post the banner about her in your blog - http://denisova.yhrm.org/logo ; tell about it to your fellow journalists, and bloggers, probably this topic might seem attractive to them;
5. Appeal to Microsoft and Corel and demand to announce their position publicly - what is their attitude to the fact that on their behalf their representatives in different regions of the Russian Federation instigate criminal cases against civil activists and human rights defenders under the pretext of fight for legal software?

IN SUPPORT OF ANASTASIA
Solidarity team with Anastasia Denisova: solidarity-Denisova@yhrm.org
Team in support of human rights defenders of YHRM: HRD@yhrm.org
Website in support of Anastasia: http://denisova.yhrm.org

HOW TO SEND THE APPEAL?
1 step:

• If you appeal on behalf of an organization, then paste the text to the blank with the letterhead, insert the date, signature, position and name of the head of your organization. 
• If you appeal personally, change "we" into "I" in the text and insert other necessary changes, include the date, your name and country/city, do not forget to sign it.

2 step:

In Russian it makes sense first to fax the appeal. It is very important to fax this appeal as soon as possible as the court hearing is coming in the following weeks! It is also desirable to send the appeal with the regular mail service. 
3 step:

We ask you to inform the solidarity team if you have taken any of the above mentioned actions in support of Anastasia Denisova: solidarity-Denisova@yhrm.org

MORE INFORMATION
Solidarity team with Anastasia Denisova : solidarity-Denisova@yhrm.org
Team in support of human rights defenders of YHRM: HRD@yhrm.org
Website in support of Anastasia: http://denisova.yhrm.org - http://denisova.yhrm.org/en
Appeal http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/attachments/SolidarityDenisova.doc