"Voice" and Lilia Shibanova were fined 400 thousand

The court in Moscow found guilty of violating the Law on Foreign Agents Association "Voice" and fined it 300 thousand rubles. Representatives of the NPO called this decision "unfair and illegal" and stated that they would appeal it within ten days. “Non -access to the register of foreign agents is the position of all employees of the Association, since we believe that we work for the benefit of Russia and do not fulfill any instructions of other states,” the organization’s lawyer emphasized. Lilia Shibanova, the head of the Voice, was fined, who, according to the authorities, should be personal responsibility.

Twitter-portage was led today by the correspondent of freedom Maria Shubina. According to her, there were many journalists and human rights activists in the courtroom. Lyudmila Alekseeva, Oleg Orlov, Lev Ponomarev, Yuri Djibladze, Nina Tagankina came.

Two points are based on the prosecution: the political activity that the authorities saw in the new constituent code developed by the “voice”, and foreign financing, for which they calculated the award of the Andrei Sakharov International Prize.

As a lawyer of the association told the court, the organization did not receive money from abroad. He explained that last year, money really received money from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee for the Sakharov Award. However, the “vote”, due to the law on foreign agents, decided to abandon the monetary part of the prize and notified the bank that the funds were mistaken, after which they were returned to the sender. This was confirmed by the representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee interrogated in court.

The Ministry of Justice insists that the Voice association conducts political activity and performs the function of a foreign agent. This was said in the court by the Deputy Director of the Department for NGOs of the Ministry of Justice Tatyana Vagina. She did not have to answer the questions of the lawyer's “vote”: the court considered that this was not necessary.

Representatives of the Voice tried to convince the court that their organization was not engaged in politics, and the electoral code they wrote "was not aimed at changing the state system." This is social activity.

The court rejected the application of the Voice, which asked to send a request to the Constitutional Court. The Association wanted to get a conclusion regarding the compliance of the Law on Foreign Agents of the Constitution of Russia. The Voice himself believes that his norms are "fuzzy and incomprehensible."

According to Liliya Shibanova, the Voice is now, on the rights of the injured party, he himself will appeal to the Constitutional Court with a request to evaluate the law on foreign agents. Shibanova did not exclude that the Association, under pressure from the authorities, would be forced to radically change their activities, and may be completely closed.

The next refusal to recognize himself as a foreign agent will judge the Kostroma Center for Support for Public Initiatives. The court in Kostroma was appointed on April 29.