Yesterday, on 3 April 2015, judge of the Sovetsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod Olga Tonenkova dismissed the application of INGO «The Committee Against Torture» on declaring illegal the citation of the Nizhny Novgorod region Prosecutor Oleg Ponasenko based on which the Committee Against Torture was included in the list of non-commercial organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent. Human rights defenders are going to appeal against this decision in the court of appeal.

Chairman of the Committee Against Torture Igor Kalyapin: «I think that this decision is not so much against the Committee Against Torture, this decision is mainly against the state policy of the Russian Federation, ultimately, against the Russian Federation itself, against its image both inside the country and abroad. Human rights protection, efforts to achieve justice, fight against torture are labeled as an attempt to change the state policy. I think this is both a verdict and a diagnosis…»