For Human Rights engages in political activities, gets foreign funding – prosecutor

(Interfax – June 28, 2013) Moscow prosecutors inspected the movement For Human Rights because its leader Lev Ponomaryov organized political actions and there is information that this NGO is receiving money from abroad.

The organization “has been found to receive money from foreign organizations and engage in political activities,” a representative of the Moscow prosecutors said in the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court on Friday.

The court is now considering Ponomaryov’s demand to recognize the inspection conducted by the prosecutors as illegal.

The prosecutor said the movement’s political activities were manifested in the fact that Ponomaryov organized political events, for example, the event “against police arbitrariness in Kazan” in 2010-2012.

The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court on Friday considered a claim filed by seven NGOs contesting the inspections conducted by the prosecutors in the spring. Specifically, the court was to hear complaints from representatives of Transparency International, the office of Amnesty International, the movement For Human Rights, the center Memorial, the foundation Public Verdict, the association Golos, etc.

Human rights activists link the inspection to the law ion foreign agents that took effect last year. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said the inspections of NGOs are routine inspections, denying any violations of the law.

The Justice Ministry\’s press office said on March 25 that large-scale inspections of NGOs were being held to determine foreign agents.

A law on NGOs that obliges non-governmental organizations that get funding from foreign countries to be registered as foreign agents took effect on November 21, 2012.