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Russian Gulag Historian Sentenced on Sex Crimes

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - A Russian court has sentenced a history researcher to 3.5
   years in prison on charges of child abuse -- in a closely watched case
   his supporters say is state retaliation over his research into
   Stalinist-era atrocities in Russia's northwest.
   Yuri Dmitriev, 64, was convicted Wednesday of "violent acts of a sexual
   nature" -- allegedly for touching his underage foster daughter,
   according to prosecutors. The court rejected two other charges of
   illegal weapons possession and child pornography.
   Yet Dmitriev has always denied the charges and says they were motivated
   by shifting state attitudes toward his discovery of the remains of
   thousands of Soviet-era prisoners during Joseph Stalin's Great Terror
   of the 1930s.
   The verdict comes after a winding closed three-year court proceeding
   that saw Dmitriev held in detention throughout -- in effect, meaning
   that despite the sentence, the historian will be freed within months.
   Given that prosecutors had been seeking a 15-year sentence, the judge's
   decision was met as akin to victory by Dmitriev's supporters.
   "The total lack of grounds for the charges against Dmitriev was clear
   from the start," said a [1]statement after the verdict by the human
   rights group Memorial, where Dmitriev worked and conducted portions of
   his research.
   "And such a lenient sentence on such serious charges can mean only one
   thing: the prosecution has no proof that Dmitriev is really guilty of
   forced sexual activity with his underage adopted daughter."
   Acquittals in Russia's justice system are extremely rare -- clocking in
   at less than 1% of all cases.
   Dmitriev's lawyers say nonetheless they will appeal the conviction.
   Troubling discovery
   The origins of the case date back to 1997, when Dmitriev and two
   colleagues discovered a mass grave of some 7,000 remains in Sandarmokh,
   a remote wooded area in northwest Russia. They had uncovered the
   remains of Soviet political prisoners executed by Stalin's secret
   police at the height of the repressions in 1937-38.
   "We were searching for those prisoner remains for 9 years," says Irina
   Flige, the head of Memorial in Saint Petersburg, who took part in the
   expedition in an interview.

References

   1. https://www.memo.ru/en-us/memorial/departments/intermemorial/news/431

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