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Cinema for Human Rights - The Support Festival for Khadijat and Malik Gataev

Press release on 23 July 2009

1-7 August 2009 Vilnius, Lithuania

PRESS CONFERENCE ON 1 AUGUST AT 4 PM IN FORUM CINEMAS VINGIS (VILNIUS, LITHUANIA)

MEP and HH Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights in the European Parliament, Heidi Hautala, Finnish film directors Pirjo Honkasalo and Aki Kaurismaki

"Cinema Against Lies" International Film Festival held in Vilnius on 1-2 August 2009 is organized as an act of public support and recognition towards Khadijat and Malik Gataev.

"It is intolerable that innocent people are kept in prison", commentates Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki, who supports and attends the festival. "Because we have no other weapon than cinema, we will use it to demand justice for the Gataevs."

For several years Khadijat and Malik Gataev have kept orphanages to Chechen children both in Grozny, Chechnya and in Kaunas, Lithuania. In June 2009 they were sentenced for family despotism for 10 months in jail. As they were initially arrested on 14 October 2008, they should be released on 14 August 2009. However, there is not enough exact information about their release, and even if they are released, they might face the deportation back to Chechnya. That could prove fatal them, and it must not be allowed to happen.

An international group of supporters of Khadijat and Malik Gataev as well as of their children have organized the "Cinema Against Lies" film festival in Vilnius to raise public awareness in Lithuania and remind politicians of Lithuania about the obligation to comply to the norms of the membership in the European Union.

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Press releases

23.07.09 CINEMA FOR HUMAN RIGHTS – The Support Festival for Khadijat and Malik Gataev