CaT employees to continue their human rights work

The work of the employees of the Committee against Torture (CaT) and the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) in Northern Caucasus will continue, said rights defenders.

The "Caucasian Knot" gas reported that this January the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) included the interregional public organization "Committee against Torture" into the register of non-profit organizations (NPOs) that perform functions of a foreign agent, which was made upon recommendation of the Prosecutor's Office of the Nizhny Novgorod Region that the MoJ received on December 29, 2014. The Prosecutor's Office regarded that the CaT was engaged in political activities; and that was sufficient to put the NPO on the list of "foreign agents".

The lawyers of the CaT have appealed against the above decision at the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court. If the CaT loses the appeal case, most likely it will self-liquidate, said its leader Igor Kalyapin.

On July 8, the appellate court dismissed the appeal of the human rights NPO.

Despite the liquidation of the CaT – the oldest human rights organization in Russia, – the activities of its employees will continue in all areas, Igor Kalyapin told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "None of our activities will be stopped, including the work of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) in Chechnya, which, of course, will continue its work," – he said, adding that his team will have to decide the issue of "how to safeguard their work and their employees."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.