The Moscow City Court upheld a fine of 300 thousand rubles to Memorial

The Moscow City Court upheld a fine of 300,000 rubles for the international human rights organization Memorial for violating the law on non-profit organizations performing the function of “foreign agents”.

The court upheld the decision of the Tverskoy District Court, issued on December 7, and refused to satisfy the appeal of Memorial's representatives.

The organization must now pay a fine for refusing to voluntarily register as a foreign agent.

“We will appeal this decision, already in cassation to the Supreme Court. In this case, this is an anecdotal decision, our court turned out to be independent of the facts. The decision was again made on the thesis that Memorial International is not an international organization, although in court we showed documents on the registration of branches abroad,” Yan Rachinsky, Chairman of the Board of Memorial, told Novaya Gazeta.

He added that Memorial would file a complaint against the decision of the Russian court with the ECtHR.

It should be reminded that in October last year the Ministry of Justice found "signs of participation in political activities" in the activities of "Memorial", and also established that the organization received "funds from foreign sources". On this basis, the organization was recognized as a "foreign agent".

In court, representatives of the human rights center pointed out that, according to the decision of the Constitutional Court, international organizations cannot be foreign agents, therefore Memorial International "cannot be involved as international agents."