Translated material
"Team 29" announced the cessation of activities
The independent human rights association of lawyers and journalists "Team 29" has announced that it is terminating its activities.
This happened after Roskomnadzor blocked the organization’s website in Russia on July 16, citing the fact that it hosted materials from the Czech organization Spolecnost Svobody Informace.
We have reviewed the [RKN] notice. It follows from it that the Prosecutor General's Office identifies "Team 29" with the NGO "Společnost Svobody Informace" registered in the Czech Republic, included in the list of undesirable organizations. We do not agree with this. The conclusions of the Prosecutor General's Office contradict facts and law, they are arbitrary and far-fetched. Team 29 has no relationship with the Czech NGO.
Team 29 lawyers believe that the authorities' next step could be criminal prosecution of both members of the organization and its supporters. “Under these conditions, the continuation of the activities of Team 29 poses a direct and clear threat to the security of a large number of people, and we cannot ignore this risk,” human rights activists said.
Team 29 has announced that it is deleting its entire archive because the existence of this content on the internet could be qualified as "distribution of material from an undesirable organization". Team 29 attorneys will continue to defend their clients solely in their personal capacity.
- "Team 29" was created by lawyer Ivan Pavlov in 2014. The organization's lawyers specialize in defending those accused of high treason, disclosure of state secrets or espionage.
- The organization "Spolecnost Svobody Informace" was founded in 2015, its goal was to provide free access to publicly significant information. The presidents of the organization were senior lawyer of Team 29 Daria Sukhikh and Ivan Pavlov. As reported Mediazona , later they entrusted Prague resident Anastasia Moletotova to represent their interests in the organization. The Prosecutor General's Office recognized "Spolecnost Svobody Informace" as "undesirable" on June 29, 2021.
- At the end of April, the head of Team 29, Ivan Pavlov, was accused of violating the secrecy of the preliminary investigation. As a preventive measure, he was assigned a ban on certain actions. For example, he cannot use the Internet and mobile communications.