"Team 29" announced its closure

The independent human rights project "Team 29" announced the closure.

On July 16, it became known that Roskomnadzor blocked the website of human rights activists on the basis of the request of the Prosecutor General's Office: the agency stated that Team 29 was allegedly distributing materials from an undesirable organization.

“The Prosecutor General's Office identifies Team 29 with the NGO Společnost Svobody Informace, registered in the Czech Republic, and 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. Lawyers will dispute the identification, but right now we cannot ignore the position of the security forces,” they write in the Team 29 telegram channel.

Human rights activists stressed that despite the termination of the project, the lawyers of the association will continue to work on the cases of their clients, but "exclusively in their personal capacity, if the clients do not refuse their help in the current situation."

• On June 29, 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office declared undesirable the organization Spolecnost Svobody Informace, ZS (Freedom of Information Company, s.s., Society for Freedom of Information, s.s.), registered in the Czech Republic, as undesirable.
• At the end of April, the hotel room of the head of Team 29 Ivan Pavlov and his apartment in St. Petersburg, the office of Team 29 and the IT specialist of the project Igor Dorfman were searched . During the investigative measures, the security forces seized equipment and documents containing attorney-client privilege.
• According to the security forces, lawyer Ivan Pavlov, without the consent of the investigator, handed over to Vedomosti journalists a copy of the decision to bring Ivan Safronov as a defendant. On the same day, the court chose a preventive measure for the lawyer in the form of a ban on certain actions in the case of disclosure of preliminary investigation data (Article 310 of the Criminal Code).
• "Team 29" specializes in protecting freedom of speech, handles the case of Ivan Safronov and a number of other criminal cases of treason and espionage . In addition, the project shares legal advice for various occasions, produces podcasts, and publishes letters to political prisoners.