Court dismisses CPT's complaints about fines

The court has ruled out that the "Committee for Prevention of Torture" (CPT) was lawfully fined for its failure to apply for inclusion in the register of foreign agents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in January 2016, the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) recognized the CPT as a foreign agent, although according to Igor Kalyapin, the CPT's director, the organization got no financing from foreign sources. The MoJ's decision was made based on the inspection conducted in the Orenburg Region, where the CPT had its office.

Members of the organization were involved in the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of human rights defenders in Chechnya and were attacked. On June 3, 2015, the JMG's office in Grozny was destroyed, and on December 13, 2014, the Grozny JMG's office was set on fire.

On May 13, the CPT was fined 300,000 roubles. Timur Rakhmatulin, the leader of the Orenburg CPT's office, who until December 2015 was the chairman of the organization, was fined 100,000 roubles.

The inspection of the CPT's activities was organized at the request of lawyer Dmitry Dimitriev, a former employee of the organization, whose labour contract was not renewed, the "Echo of Moscow" reports.

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