The Sovetsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod fined the head of the "Team Against Torture" Sergei Babinets one hundred thousand rubles. He was charged with failure to submit a "foreign agent" report (Part 2 of Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) on the organization's activities for 2022; however, the "Team" was only added to the register of "foreign agents" this summer. The human rights activist wrote about the fine on his Telegram channel.
"I asked why the Team had obligations retroactively, when the organization was not yet in the register? To this, the Ministry of Justice responded that it considered the liquidation of the Committee Against Torture in 2022 untenable, and therefore the reporting had to be submitted, despite the fact that at that time another organization was operating - the Team Against Torture," Babinets explained the logic of the offense imputed to him.
The Committee Against Torture was declared a "foreign agent" on June 10, 2022, and the next day the organization announced its self-liquidation. "We do not want to continue working and at the same time hang the label of "foreign agents" on ourselves. We consider this term an insult and slander," Babinets explained this decision at the time.
At the same time, the Ministry of Justice did not exclude the liquidated organization from the register of "foreign agents." When on August 30 of this year, the "Team Against Torture" created by former employees of the "Committee" was also included in the register, it was simply added to the line next to "Committee."
In September 2022, Babinets was already fined one hundred thousand rubles under the "foreign agent" article on violation of labeling rules (Article 19.7.5-3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, now abolished). Then, the reason for this was also the claims of the Ministry of Justice against the already liquidated "Committee". On August 18, officials drew up a protocol due to posts allegedly published by the "Committee Against Torture" in a Telegram channel. When Babinets pointed out that a liquidated organization cannot post anything and, therefore, violate the law, a representative of the Ministry of Justice explained that when drawing up the protocol, the agency relied on the existence of a line with "Committee" in the register, and not on the protocol on its liquidation.
In 2015, the "Committee Against Torture" was already recognized as a non-profit organization - a "foreign agent", after which the NGO announced its self-liquidation and soon the "Committee for the Prevention of Torture" appeared. In 2016, it was also recognized as a "foreign agent" NGO, and in 2017, the NGO again self-liquidated.
- The legislation on "foreign agents" is becoming stricter every year. On December 1, 2022, the law "On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence" came into force, as well as numerous legislative amendments to the "foreign agent" regulation. You can read about the list of "affiliated persons", new registers and other innovations in the law on "foreign agents" in the analysis of OVD-Info .
- In addition, Vladimir Putin signed a law on imprisonment for up to five years for “foreign agents” who were held accountable twice in one year for violating the procedure for the activities of a “foreign agent” (Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
- In the fall of 2021, OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project. We study the practice of applying laws on "foreign agents", talk about their impact on civil society and specific people, initiate discussions with experts and propose ways of possible changes. In December 2021, together with the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, we began providing legal support to people and organizations that ended up on the registers of "foreign agents".