Igor Kalyapin announces creation of "Committee to Prevent Torture"

The "Committee against Torture" (CaT), liquidated because of being put on the registry of "foreign agents", will be replaced by the "Committee to Prevent Torture" (CPT). The new organization will continue working in Chechnya, said its chairman Igor Kalyapin.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 3 the Sovietskiy District Court of Nizhny Novgorod refused to invalidate the prosecutor's presentation. On April 24, the CaT's lawyers appealed against the decision, but on July 8 their appeal was dismissed. On July 24, activists of the CaT spoke for the liquidation of the organization.

"This week we'll submit documents (to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of the Russian Federation – note of the "Caucasian Knot") on the liquidation of the organization; and on the following week, the CaT ceases to function. On August 3, another interregional organization – the "Committee to Prevent Torture" – will start working," the TASS quotes Mr Kalyapin as saying.

He stressed that the new organization will not receive any foreign funding and will exist "solely on donations of Russian citizens," the RIA "Novosti" reports.

On June 3, unidentified assailants attacked the Grozny office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG), where employees of the CaT had worked. According to eyewitnesses, the police arrived to the place only after the pogrom was over and after the attackers had smashed the car of rights defenders and destroyed the office and the apartment of the JMG.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.