The authorities of Russia should immediately stop the criminal prosecution of the head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the criminal case was initiated on the claim of the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, who was called by Mr Orlov this summer as the person politically responsibility for the of murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Chechen branch of the "Memorial".

"Criminal liability for slander is an unfairly severe sanction; and its existence is negatively affecting the freedom of expressing opinions in Russia," said Allison Gill, director of the HRW's Moscow office. "Kadyrov has already got one court ruling in his favour."

The initiation of a criminal case against Orlov became known on October 27. In case of a verdict of guilty, the human rights activist can get up to three years of prison.

The Human Rights Watch marks that the criminal case against Orlov is another fact emphasizing the necessity to bring the Russian legislation into conformity with its international legal obligations in the area of the freedom of self-expression. As of today, among the member-states of the Council of Europe only Russia and Azerbaijan have criminal liability for slander.

When assessing Orlov's statements, the court will have to consider the applicable standards outgoing from Russia's international obligations to defend the rights and freedoms, in particular, the freedom of self-expression. In this context, the HRW reminds that the threshold of admissible criticism is much higher for a government official than for a private person.

Also, the HRW warns that the criminal case against Orlov does not exempt the authorities from their duty to carefully and impartially investigate Natalia Estemirova's murder.