The following statement from the Ukrainian American Bar Association was released on April 17 by Myroslaw Smorodsky, communications director of the UABA.
The Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA) is a national bar association created in 1977 whose members are U.S. judges, attorneys and law students of Ukrainian descent and those American attorneys who share the UABA’s goals and dedication to the rule of law. Our association has a very deep interest in upholding the ability of our colleagues in other countries to represent clients without being intimidated, harassed or penalized by their government for exercising their profession obligations on behalf of their clients.
It has come to the attention of the UABA that Mark Feygin, a Russian lawyer, is apparently being “criminally” investigated for allegedly posting statements on his Twitter account which purportedly “incite social hatred and enmity.” In reality, his Twitter comments were merely statements in support of his client, Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who is being unlawfully detained by Russian authorities.
As an attorney, Mr. Feygin works mostly on human rights matters and was lead counsel in several landmark legal cases in Russia such as: the Pussy Riot case (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova), the Greenpeace case (Arctic Sunrise, Dmitry Litvinov); the Bolotnaya case (Leonid Razvoszhaev and Sergei Udaltsov); the case of Ilya Goryachev, who was extradited from Serbia; the case of Arkady Babchenko, a political journalist; the case of Geydar Dzhemal, an Islamic philosopher; and many others. Attorney Feygin also represents Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of Crimean Tatars, and Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh opposition politician.
Ostensibly, the most recent “criminal” investigation of Mr. Feygin has as its motive not only to muzzle his vociferous defense of his clients, but more importantly, to create a chilling effect and to send an ominous signal to all Russian lawyers, discouraging them from taking up cases that criticize and challenge the Russian government’s policies and actions that violate internationally accepted human rights norms.
As such, the Russian government’s current “criminal” investigation of Mark Feygin constitutes a gross violation of the basic principles of justice and the rule of law and the right of an attorney to properly defend his client.