OSCE Chairperson-in-Office saddened by the passing of Yelena Bonner

VILNIUS, 19 June 2011 – The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis, expressed his sorrow over the passing of Yelena Bonner, one of Russia's most prominent human rights activists.

"I was saddened to hear about the death of Yelena Bonner, a true activist and human rights defender," Minister Ažubalis said. "With her husband Andrey Sakharov, Mrs. Bonner was a leading figure of Soviet dissidence and played a key role in spreading the human rights ideals of the Helsinki Final Act. She also was a true friend of Lithuania."

Bonner was a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a non-governmental rights monitor set up in 1976 to observe the Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Final Act. Bonner was jailed in 1984 on charges of anti-Soviet activity and exiled to Gorki.