The Moscow City Court decided to liquidate the human rights center “Sova”
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The Moscow City Court satisfied the claim of the Ministry of Justice of Russia to liquidate the human rights center “Sova”. Employees of the organization reported this in a telegram. The decision will be appealed.
The center monitors the problems of extremism in Russia. In 2016, the organization was recognized as a “foreign agent”.
It became known in March that the Russian Ministry of Justice needed to close “Sova”. The appeal was the result of an unscheduled inspection conducted by the department in January. The main violation was the participation of “Sovy” in events or their organization outside Moscow, where the center is registered.
Before the Ministry of Justice’s lawsuit, in a series of publications, including on the state TV channel Russia-24, the organization was accused of Russophobia, opposition to “traditional values” and criticism of laws. The head of the center, Alexander Verkhovsky, was removed from the Presidential Human Rights Council in the fall.
According to human rights defenders, today the court refused to postpone the trial until the Gagarinsky Court of Moscow considers the counterclaim of “Sovy” against the Moscow Department of the Ministry of Justice. The center insists that the agency conducted the inspection in violation of the law.
The Moscow City Court also disagreed with the arguments of the defense that participation in events outside Moscow does not violate the law.
The Sova Information and Analytical Center was founded in 2002 by employees of the Moscow Helsinki Group, recently liquidated by the court, and the Panorama Information and Research Center.
Last September, the “Veterans of Russia” movement required the liquidation of “Owls”. In November, the Ministry of Justice began an unscheduled inspection of the center.
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