Russian court orders closure of leading rights group Memorial

Russia’s Supreme Court has ruled that Memorial, the country’s best-known human rights group, should be shut down, marking the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on rights activists, independent media and opposition supporters. Last month, prosecutors accused the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Centre and its parent structure, Memorial International, of violating Russia’s “foreign agent” law, asking the court to dissolve them. The court on Tuesday ruled in favour of the prosecution, which charged at the hearing that Memorial “creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state, whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals”, referring to the Soviet Union. Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith reports. – Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/ – Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/ – Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/ #Russia # #MemorialInternational #HumanRightsViolations
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