Moscow authorities consider lawful eviction of NGO from office
MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - The law enforcement agencies that evicted the staff of the non-governmental organization For Human Rights from an office in Maly Kislovsky Street in the early hours of Saturday acted lawfully, the city property department told Interfax on Saturday.
"Law enforcement officers acted lawfully, because the premises occupied by the company no longer belonged to it," a department spokesperson said.
The city was protecting its property this way, he said.
"The contract for renting the premises will not be re-concluded," he said.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin earlier described as arbitrary For Human Rights' eviction from its office by law enforcement agencies. "We will discuss with lawyers how to react to what happened," Lukin told Interfax on Saturday.
"Moscow authorities and police denied me access to the scene, which is a gross violation of the federal constitutional law on human rights commissioner. I will bring up this issue, and I have yet to think how this should be done," Lukin said.
"Officials from the Moscow administration, the Interior Ministry and apparently some other organizations were trying to settle the dispute between two parties unilaterally, without judicial bodies, and therefore arbitrarily," Lukin said.
Police and Moscow authorities forcibly evicted For Human Rights, a leading Russian non-governmental organization, from its office in the early hours of Saturday, claiming that the rent contract for the office had expired.
For Human Rights called the night events an "assault," in which seven people were injured, including the organization's 72-year-old leader, Lev Ponomaryov, and Yabloko party leader and Moscow mayoral candidate Sergei Mitrokhin.