CASES
AGAINST
"SOVA" CENTER AND ITS DIRECTOR TERMINATED AFTER EXPIRATION OF
STATUTE
OF LIMITATIONS
SOVA
Center
for
News and Analysis, 25 December 2017
On
25 December
2017 in Moscow a magistrate judge of precinct No. 387, Natalia
Chukanova,
terminated the administrative case against the "Sova" center and
its
director, Alexander Verkhovsky.
We
recall that
the "Sova" center was accused of violating law No. 272 (points 3
and
1 of article 3.1), the so-called "law of Dima Yakovlev." The
prosecutor's office considered that "Sova" distributes materials
of
undesirable organizations, since on the "Sova" website, in the
section "About us," there were references along with links on
their
website to our donors of past years, the NED [National Endowment
for Democracy]
and the Soros Fund, that now have been included in the register
of "undesirable
organizations."
On
15 September
2017, Magistrate Judge Natalia Chukanova decided to return both
cases to the
prosecutor's office for proper registration and removal of
deficiencies. Judge
Chukanova pointed to deficiencies in the order of the
prosecutor's office for
opening an administrative case: first, it did not have an
assertion that
actions by "Sova" do not contain indications of a criminal
offense, while such assertion is necessary since otherwise they
do not come under article 20.33 of
the Code of Administrative Violations of Law, and second, the
date, time, and
place of the violation of law were not included, that is, there
was no
description of the objective aspect of violation of law. However
the Moscow
city prosecutor's office challenged the determination by the
magistrate court.
On 21 November 2017 a judge of the Basman district court, Yulia
Safina,
considered this protest, changed the determination of the
magistrate judge, and
returned both cases for consideration by the magistrate court.
A lawyer of the Moscow city prosecutor's office, Andrei Mamonov, and lawyers for "Sova" and Alexander Verkhovsky, Elena Pershakova (Public Verdict Foundation) and Sarkis Darbinian (Roskomsvoboda Project), participated in the last session, held on 25 December in magistrate court of precinct No. 387. Judge Chukanova made the decision to terminate the administrative cases because of the expiration of the statute of limitations, since more than three months had passed from the time of the discovery by the prosecutor's office of respective links on the "Sova" website. This decision did not meet with objections on the part of the Moscow city prosecutor's office and "Sova" lawyers. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 December 2017)
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