The Moscow City Court decided to liquidate the Information and Analytical Center “Sova” * at the request of the Ministry of Justice. It is reported by “Mediazona”*.
At the meeting, Judge Vyacheslav Polyga read documents indicating that in November 2022 the prosecutor’s office requested the Ministry of Justice to carry out an unscheduled inspection of Sova*. The verification itself took place in January-February 2023.
The ministry came to the conclusion that the center, registered in Moscow, operated outside the capital, but did not issue interregional or all-Russian status. SOVA* notably took part in the OSCE conference in Warsaw, as well as in round tables and seminars in the Russian regions. The Ministry of Justice described these violations as “serious and irremediable” and called for the liquidation of the center.
Sova‘s lawyer, Diana Sork, said that since 2002 the center had acted openly and in accordance with its charter, including outside Moscow, and that the alleged violations had previously raised no questions. She also noted that Owl received a presidential grant for events outside the capital.
Several people were present in the room, including the representative of the United States Embassy, David Bernstein. Judge Polyga decided in five minutes to liquidate Sova*.
“Owl” * does not agree with the court’s decision and will appeal, center director Alexander Verkhovsky said in a conversation with Russian media.
“We don’t agree with the ruling, but frankly we’re not terribly surprised that it does. We were hoping the court would adjourn the hearing, there was a motion for an adjournment. But if he had already started the examination on the merits, we did not hope that he would refuse the Ministry of Justice. Although during the argument in court, the representative of the Ministry of Justice was completely unable to substantiate his position, he could not answer the questions on the merits. But that did not prevent anything. We await a reasoned decision within 10 days, then we appeal within a month, then we await the “call. The forecast is disappointing, because the call of the Moscow Helsinki Group took place today, without any success. I think that with a high probability, we will repeat the same,” he said. he declares.
The SOVA* Center was founded in 2002. The organization’s website claims that it conducts “information and research work” on issues of nationalism and xenophobia, political radicalism, the relationship between religion and society and human rights in Russia. Sova* collects and publishes statistics “on hate crimes and anti-extremist law enforcement”. The organization was recognized as a foreign agent in 2016. The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to liquidate Sova* in March 2023.
- registered in the register of foreign agents
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