The head of a human rights center, temporarily recognized as a foreign agent, was given a written undertaking not to leave

In Sochi, Semyon Simonov, head of the Southern Human Rights Center, was ordered not to leave in connection with a criminal case on non-payment of a fine for refusing to register the organization as a foreign agent. This is reported by the "Caucasian Knot".

The criminal case was opened by bailiffs in October 2019 on the basis of a report from the detective of the FSB. Simonov is a suspect under the article on malicious non-execution by an employee of a commercial or other organization of a court decision that has entered into legal force (part 2 of article 315 of the Criminal Code). Lawyer Alexander Popkov told the "Caucasian Knot" that he would soon be charged.

In 2016, the Russian Ministry of Justice entered the Southern Human Rights Center into the register of foreign agents. The organization did not register as a foreign agent and in February 2017 the Sochi court fined it 300,000 rubles. After that, the organization did not work for a year, and eventually succeeded in removing itself from the register of foreign agents.

According to the "Caucasian Knot", in September 2019 Simonov was searched, during which several laptops, system units, flash drives and documents related to the "Southern Human Rights Center" were seized. Then it became known about his criminal case. Earlier it was reported that the search was connected with a criminal case on forged documents.

According to the publication, the human rights activist regularly provided documents confirming that the organization could not pay the imposed fine. As a result, the court placed the obligation to pay personally on Simonov. The human rights activist himself does not believe that he should pay a fine that is not his own.

• The Southern Human Rights Center specialized in helping migrants. OVD-Info published the story of the head of the organization, Semyon Simonov, about how he was detained because of a meeting with Volgograd workers.