This week our guest on the podcast is Ernest Mezak, a well-knownjournalist and human rights activist from the Republic of Komi in Russia. Herepresents victims of law enforcement violations in courts at the nationallevel and has also acted as a legal representative before the European Court ofHuman Rights in some 200 cases. In 2012 he won the Moscow Helsinki Group'sHuman Rights Award in the category "For defending human rights in courts."Previously, Ernest Mezak has worked for the Public Verdict Foundation.
SergeiNikitin writes on Facebook:At Christmas 2007 Ernest Mezak was detained by two police officers. It was inSyktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic: Ernest was shoved into theso-called ‘dog-cage’, that is, into the back compartment of a police patrolcar. Mezak later recalled: "It was very cold and dark in there. I spent 20minutes in those conditions. Subsequently, I appealed my treatment conditions atSyktyvkar city court. And the most amazing thing happened: the court wassympathetic to my claim and found the detention conditions to be in violationof Article 3 of the European Convention prohibiting torture.” Our interlocutor thisweek, Ernest Mezak, is a human rights activist from the Komi Republic. He oftenrepresents victims of law enforcement violations in courts at the nationallevel, and he has also acted as legal representative before the European Courtof Human Rights in some 200 cases. In 2012, he won the Moscow Helsinki Group'sHuman Rights Award in the category "For Defending Human Rights in Courts.It is understandable that such stubbornness, sometimes bordering on obstinacy,cannot help but irritate people in law enforcement. I think in Syktyvkar he iswell known and disliked by all officials. A few months ago in the Komi capitala criminal case was opened against Ernest for insulting a judge. His apartment wassearched, and, as usual, all his computers, smartphones, flash drives and harddrives were confiscated. Mezak was summoned for interrogation. Ernest told uswhat has been happening to him – and about the prospects for the human rightsmovement in Russia.