State prosecutor seeks 15 years imprisonment for ‘Memorial’ human rights activist

A state prosecutor has requested a 15 year prison sentence for 64-year-old Gulag historian and human rights activist Yuri Dmitriev, who stands accused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter.

Dmitriev has been in jail since 2018, while the case against him undergoes re-examination. He was previously acquitted on two counts: sexual misconduct toward a minor and the production of child pornography. 

Dmitriev is the head of the Karelian branch of the human rights organization “Memorial,” whose activists and scholars have faced persecution across Russia. Memorial believes he is a victim of political persecution. Noble laureates have written letters in support of Dmitriev, as well as Russian cultural figures and international scholars. 

In 1997, Yuri Dmitriev uncovered a mass grave made during the Stalinist terror in Karelia’s Sandarmokh forest massif. He has also worked to compile memorial lists of local residents who were victims of Soviet era repression.