The Nizhegorodsky Regional Court upheld the ruling of the District Court with regard to Igor Kalyapin. Previously, he was declared guilty of involvement in the activity of an undesirable organization (Article 20.33 Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation) and fined for 10 thousand rubles.

“In principle, we were not surprised by the ruling. We will know the grounds on which the court declined the defense arguments only after the court ruling is delivered. Today, only its substantive provisions were announced”, — lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Dmitry Kazakov commented on the situation, — “We intend to appeal against the ruling, because we are convinced of our rightness and of the absurdity of the charges”.

Igor Kalyapin was accused of cooperation with a Czech human rights organization “People in Need”, which was declared undesirable in 2019. At the same time, this case contains screenshots of publications on the website of the Committee Against Torture where this organization is mentioned in the period when it had not yet been “undesirable”.

We are convinced that Kalyapin is prosecuted for his human rights activity and harsh criticism of the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office’s work. The administrative case on the “involvement in undesirable organization” may become the first step to the criminal prosecution. We consider this fine to be an attack of the state against the organization which has been helping the victims of torture and law-enforcement officers’ impunity for 21 years.