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Yuri Markovich Schmidt ( Russian: Ю́рий Ма́ркович Шмидт; 10 May 1937 – 12 January 2013) was a Russian human rights lawyer.
Schmidt was born in Leningrad. [1] following a long battle with cancer. He was 75 years old. [1]
Early life
Yuri Schmidt was born in Leningrad on May 10, 1937, while the USSR was going through the period of the Stalinist great purge. His father, declared as the " enemy of the people", was imprisoned in the gulag for 19 years shortly after Schmidt was born. [1] Schmidt began studying law and graduated from Saint Petersburg State University in 1960. [1]
Career
He was not one of the lawyers considered "reliable" by the regime and pleaded in criminal proceedings for 30 years.[ citation needed] In 1986, Schmidt was struck off the bar association. After pleading his case, he was reinstated a year later. [2]
He began representing prisoners charged with political crimes in the late 1980s. His clients included jailed leaders of political independence movements in the ethnic enclaves of Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia, a journalist charged with defaming President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. His most resounding victory was the acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin, a former Soviet submarine captain who had been charged with espionage and high treason after he wrote a series of reports detailing radioactive pollution by Russia’s navy. He was a member of the Mikhail Khodorkovsky defense team from 2004, and headed the legal team for several years. [1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Roth, Andrew (2013-01-17). "Yuri M. Schmidt, Rights Lawyer in Russia, Dies at 75". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
- ^ Mort de Iouri Schmidt, avocat russe des droits de l'homme
External links
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