The Ministry of Justice has ruled that the Committee for the Prevention of Torture must pay a huge fine of 400,000 roubles for refusing to call itself a "foreign agent" NGO. The human rights defenders intend to take the ministry to court. As Radio Svoboda reports, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture was previously named the Commttee Against Torture. Two years ago the human rights defenders reregistered the organization in order to avoid having to call themselves a "foreign agent." At present the reverse process is taking place: the Committee Against Torture (based in Nizhny Novgorod) is being registered once again as an NGO. In this way it turns out that the Ministry of Justice has levied a fine against an orgnanization that, according to the leader of the organization Igor Kalyapin, "has been in the process of closing down for two months already." "I really can't understand these necrophilic tendencies of the Ministry of Justice," Igor Kalyapin told the Radio Svoboda correspondent. "As soon as we start the procedure to close down a legal entity, they suddenly get busy and start imposing fines on an organization that is already dead. Evidently, this is how they fulfill the work plan they have for repressive measures." Igor Kalyapin seeks to assure those who worried for the fate of one of Russia's best known human rights organizations. He concludes: "Don't worry, everything's OK. We're not going anywhere. Since 19 July 2017 we have once again working as the Committee Against Torture. We have taken back our original name. We are not a foreign agent. Don't worry." |
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