Human rights activist Tatyana Kotlyar, who is regularly tried in cases of “rubber apartments,” was again sentenced to a fine under the article on fictitious registration of citizens of the Russian Federation or foreigners (Article 322.2 of the Criminal Code). OVD-Info reported this from the courtroom.
The Obninsk Magistrate Court imposed a fine of 450 thousand rubles on Kotlyar. At the same time, the prosecutor at the meeting on March 16 demanded that the 72-year-old woman be sentenced to a real term of one and a half years in a penal colony.
Human rights activist and head of the Kaluga branch of “For Human Rights” Tatyana Kotlyar is known for regularly registering in her apartment Russians, visitors and refugees who do not have the opportunity to obtain registration.
“I register people to help them. Without registration, there are difficulties in realizing rights even for Russian citizens. I'm being judged for this. For example, a homeless man with an open HIV status approached me. He lost his old passport, and he was given a new one without registration, without which he could not receive pills for therapy,” Kotlyar told OVD-Info.
This is already the seventh criminal case against Kotlyar under this article. It was launched in the fall of 2023. Previously, the woman was fined, the last time - in the summer of 2023 - 600 thousand rubles.
In addition, on February 28, 2024, the Obninsk City Court, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, prohibited Kotlyar from registering more than six people in one of her apartments, and more than five in the second.
The security forces demanded that the human rights activist be completely prohibited from doing this. In its request, prosecutors said her “criminal activities” violated Russia’s national security interests. The publication “Beware, News” wrote that according to the prosecutor at the trial, over the past 15 years the woman has registered 10,593 people in her apartments.
The news has been corrected. Tatyana Kotlyar was assigned 450 thousand rubles, and not 350 thousand rubles, as we wrote before.
- In July 2022, the European Court of Human Rights awarded Tatiana Kotlyar six thousand euros in compensation in connection with her criminal prosecutions.
- In October 2018, Radio Liberty released Yulia Vishnevets’ film “Rubber Apartment.” It tells the story not only of Tatyana Kotlyar herself, but also of those whom she helps: Armenian Diana Tigranyan cannot enroll her children in school without registration, and Ukrainian refugee Igor Rebrov needed registration after three months of captivity in the DPR.