MOSCOW - The Russian human rights organization Memorial said that the mass deportation of Estonians in 1949 could be qualified as a crime against humanity but not as an act of genocide, reported Interfax news agency.
"Attempts to interpret the 1949 deportation as genocide or a war crime are legally unsound. At the same time, there are quite enough reasons to say that, in terms of international law, the deportation was a crime against humanity," said Memorial in a statement marking the deportations.
The organization said in its statement that the criminal case Estonian authorities had opened against Arnold Meri, who has been accused of genocide against civilians during deportations of residents of the Hiiumaa Island to the Novosibirsk region in 1949 should not be charged of genocide by of crimes against humanity.
The trial of Arnold Meri, who took part in the deportation, in May 2008. At the trial in Kardla, Hiiumaa, Meri said after the charges were read out to him that he pleaded not guilty of genocide.
Mart Reino, a judge at the Kardla courthouse of the Parnu County Court, satisfied on May 20 defense lawyer Sven Sillar's application to suspend the trial for the medical examination of the defendant.
According to the statement of charges, 251 residents of the island of Hiiumaa were deported to Siberia under Meri's direction in March 1949.
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