The accounts of the “Committee for the Prevention of Torture” were seized after being included in “foreign agents”

The accounts of the “Committee for the Prevention of Torture” were arrested after being included in the register of “foreign agents”. This will not affect the investigations of the organization, but it can change the legal form, refuse to work as an NPO. This was reported to Interfax by the head of the organization, a member of the Council for Human Rights under the President of Russia, Igor Kalyapin.

“Further activities will continue in a different legal form. It is necessary to leave the “Procrustean lodge” of NGOs, because it is impossible to work in this format in Russia. We are now planning to become a public organization without forming a legal entity, there is such a form provided for by our legislation. We will probably keep the name “Committee against Torture”, but it will not be a legal entity, so that in principle there will be no accounts, balances and property,” he said.

The organization's account was seized by the Federal Bailiff Service due to the failure of human rights activists to pay a fine of 300 thousand rubles, which was imposed for refusing to register as a "foreign agent". On the arrested account, according to Kalyapin, there were three thousand rubles.

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture monitors the observance of human rights in Chechnya. The organization's office in Grozny, as well as Kalyapin himself, were attacked. The head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has repeatedly criticized the organization and its leader, accusing them of supporting terrorists.

Julia Reprintseva