House of Romanovs files pleas for rehabilitation of members of Russian royal family

The House of Romanovs on Friday filed pleas with the Russian Prosecutor General's Office requesting the rehabilitation of members of the royal family who were executed after the revolution.

"Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna believes that all the members of the royal family named in the plea had fallen victim to the arbitrariness of the totalitarian state and were exposed to political reprisals on social, class and religious grounds," German Lukyanov, a lawyer of the House of Romanovs, told Interfax.

He said two pleas for the rehabilitation of relatives were filed by head of the Russian Imperial House Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna.

Lukyanov said she insists on the rehabilitation of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich who was shot in Perm on June 13, 1918, and also Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Fyodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Prince Ioann Konstantinovich, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich and Prince Igor Konstantinovich who were thrown into a mine in Alapayevsk on July 18, 1918.

The lawyer said that the pleas are supplemented with documents showing that members of the royal family had been subjected to political reprisals. The documents include a notification from the Federal Security Service that Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich had been shot dead in Perm and the death certificate of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich stating execution as the cause of death.

"Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna believes that all victims of the totalitarian Soviet state must be rehabilitated, including members of the royal family," Lukyanov said.

On October 1, 2008, the Presidium of the Supreme Court ruled on the rehabilitation of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II and his family.

Source: Interfax religion