"Union of Don Women" resumes its activities after search

The defence of Valentina Cherevatenko, the chair of the public organization "Union of Don Women", has received an order on initiation of criminal proceedings against the human rights defender.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 24, a search was conducted at the office of the "Union of Don Women". Investigators seized documents. Mikhail Fedotov, Chairman of the Presidential Council on Human Rights, has treated the search as unreasonable. Advocate Ildar Shafiev has claimed that, according to the investigator, the criminal case was instituted on the fact of wilful refusal to perform the duties specified by the laws of the Russian Federation on non-commercial organizations performing functions of a foreign agent. The article stipulates the punishment of up to two years of imprisonment.

According to the advocate of Valentina Cherevatenko, tomorrow morning, an appeal will be filed to one of the Rostov courts, and court hearing on consideration of the appeal shall be appointed within five days.

According to the updated information, in addition to documents, the hard drives of PCs were also seized during the search.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.