Memorial human rights center fined 300,000 rubles for publishing material without 'foreign agent' marking
MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) - The Tverskoi court of Moscow has imposed a 300,000 ruble fine on the Memorial human rights center for failing to indicate its 'foreign agent' status on the material published on its website, Alexander Cherkasov, chairman of the center's board, said.
"According to the administrative protocol of September 22, a decision was made to fine us 300,000 rubles for not marking the material on our website with a 'foreign agent' label," Cherkasov told Interfax.
Meanwhile, the website does say that the organization was declared a foreign agent NGO, he said.
Memorial is going to appeal the Tverskoi court ruling with upper courts, Cherkasov said.
The Russian Administrative Code article entitled 'Publication and/or distribution through mass media and on the Internet by a foreign-agent NGO of any material without an indication that such material is published by a foreign-agent NGO' entails a fine of 300,000 to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.
Memorial was placed on the register of foreign agents in 2014. The Center is part of an international historical-educational and human rights society of the same name. The Memorial society specializes, in particular, in studying political repressions during the Soviet era.
On December 7 the Tverskoi court of Moscow fined the international Memorial for its refusal to register as a foreign-agent NGO voluntarily. A spokeswoman for the Memorial said the organization has done nothing wrong. "According to the Russian Constitutional Court ruling, international organizations may not be foreign agents and so the Memorial cannot be held [accountable] as an international agent," she said. After the court delivered its verdict, the organization's director Yelena Zhemkova told Interfax that it will appeal the fine.