Moscow court orders Russia's oldest rights group closed

Russia's oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, on Wednesday was ordered closed down by the Moscow City Court.

"Satisfy the request of the Ministry of Justice on the liquidation of the human rights organization Moscow Helsinki Group," the court said.

The case filed by the ministry in December accused the group of carrying out its activities throughout Russia in violation of its charter, which only allows regional activities for a regional human rights group.

The ministry did several unannounced inspections to prove its claims.

The Moscow attorney's office supported the ministry, saying the results of inspections were "objective" and that the violations committed by the group cannot be corrected.

The group's representative told the court that closing it amounts to destroying "a unique social phenomenon."

The representative noted that when it was created, the Moscow Helsinki Group was conceived as "a consolidating body for the Russian human rights movement."

"This is the oldest human rights organization in the country, and from the first days of its existence it has been carrying out extensive, consolidating work. Therefore, the claims put forward are absurd. Human rights are extraterritorial," he said.

The Moscow Helsinki Group was formed under the 1975 Final Helsinki Act, signed by 35 nations, including many European countries and the U.S. and Canada, in an attempt to improve detente between the USSR and the West.

The Western-funded group was established to monitor Soviet compliance with the agreement.

Western countries and human rights groups had called the effort to shutter Helsinki another sign of Russia's deteriorating human rights situation.