Week-ending 10 December 2021
On 1 December 2021, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court upheld an earlier decision by the Soviet district court in NIzhny Novgorod to find human rights defender Igor Kalaypin, chair of the Committee Against Torture (CAT), a civil society group based in the city, guilty of “participating in the activities of an undesirable organization” under Article 20.33 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences. The Court fined him 10,000 Russian roubles. Igor Kalaypin considers this prosecution a consequence of his human rights work. He and his lawyers will appeal this decision. The ‘undesirable organisation’ in question is the Czech NGO People in Need (Člověk v tísni o.p.s.). The Russian Ministry of Justice designated People in Need an ‘undesirable foreign organisation’ in 2019. As Front Line Defenders points out: ‘The human rights defender and his defence attorneys rightfully claim that Igor Kalyapin only interacted with People in Need before MOJ listed it as “undesirable.” Yet, the Court stated that publications from 2015 and 2016 on CAT’s website mentioning People in Need qualify as “interactions with undesirable organization”.’
Article 20.33 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences: Participation in the activities of a foreign or international non-governmental organization whose activities have been designated as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation
Participation in the activities of a foreign or international non-governmental organization whose activites have been designated as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, or violation of prohibitions established by Federal Law No. 272-FZ of December 28, 2012 “On Actions against Individuals Involved in Violations of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms, Rights and Freedoms of Citizens of the Russian Federation” if such actions do not have features of a criminally punishable act shall carry an administrative fine from five thousand to fifteen thousand roubles for citizens; from twenty thousand to fifty thousand roubles for officials; from one year disqualification for officials – employees of election commissions; from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand roubles for legal entities.
Sources:
Front Line Defenders, 9 December 2021: On 1 December 2021, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court upheld the previous decision by the Nizhny Novgorod Soviet District Court to find human rights defender Igor Kalaypin guilty of “participating in the activities of an undesirable organization” under Article 20.33 of the Code of Civic Conduct of the Russian Federation. The Court fined him 10,000 Russian Roubles. Igor Kalaypin considers this prosecution a consequence of his human rights work. He and his lawyers will appeal this decision.
Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation: https://www.zakonrf.info/koap/20.33/
