A fourth criminal case was opened against human rights activist Tatyana Kotlyar for registering migrants

A fourth criminal case was opened against the Obninsk human rights activist and head of the local branch of For Human Rights, Tatyana Kotlyar, on fictitious registration of foreigners. Kotlyar herself told about this to OVD-Info.

The human rights activist was sent a notification about the initiation of a criminal case under article 322.3 of the Criminal Code (fictitious registration of foreign citizens or stateless persons at the place of stay).

This is the fourth criminal case against Kotlyar under a similar article. The previous prosecution ended in April 2019, when the court decided to dismiss the case due to the notes to Articles 322.3 and 322.2 of the Criminal Code, according to which a person is exempted from criminal liability if he contributed to the disclosure of this crime. Then the human rights activist was charged with about 109 “criminal” episodes of registration of foreign citizens.

Tatyana Kotlyar does not know on what specific episodes a criminal case has been initiated. “I can only say that of course I did it. Especially now, when the country is closed due to quarantine, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has issued an order that all foreign citizens with overdue registration must be registered with migration. Of course, I help everyone who needs it, whose registration is overdue,” said the human rights activist.

• The human rights activist has already been found guilty of fictitious registration of migrants. In 2015, Kotlyar was fined 150 thousand rubles, but was immediately amnestied. In 2017, she was again fined the same amount, but the court released her from the execution of the punishment due to the statute of limitations.
• In October, Radio Liberty released a film by Yulia Vishnevets "Rubber Flat". It tells the story of not only Tatyana Kotlyar herself, but also those she helps: Armenian Diana Tigranyan cannot enroll her children in school without a residence permit, and Ukrainian refugee Igor Rebrov needed registration after three months of captivity in the DPR.