Founder of Volgograd "Youth Centre for Consulting and Training" appeals to ECtHR

Human rights defender Temur Kobaliya has filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of the fines imposed by the Volgograd court on him and the autonomous educational organization "Youth Centre for Consulting and Training".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that following the results of the inspection carried out in December 2014, the Centre was recognized as a "foreign agent". In July, it was expelled from the register.

On October 26, 2015, Temur Kobaliya received a letter stating that the court fined the Centre 300,000 roubles. Besides, the leader himself was fined 100,000 roubles. The fine was explained by the fact that in his message on the social network, Temur Kobaliya did not indicate the Centre's status as a "foreign agent."

Temur Kobaliya believes that bringing to administrative responsibility is an interference with his rights guaranteed by Article 10 and Article 11 of the Convention on Human Rights: the right to freedom of expression.

The applicant asks the ECtHR to recognize his rights as violated and to impose compensation for moral damage.

Let us remind you that the organization led by Temur Kobaliya was included in the register of "foreign agents" after in 2013, he took part in the first Georgian-Russian forum "Problems and prospects of development of civil society institutions and of the Georgian-Russian relations".

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