Semyon Simonov

At the end of 2016, the Ministry of Justice conducted an unscheduled inspection of the activities of the Southern Human Rights Centre. As a result, the Ministry identified signs of a non-profit organisation performing the functions of a foreign agent, and it was also established that the organisation had not applied for inclusion in the "foreign agents" register. The signs of a "foreign agent" were foreign funding and allegedly involvement in political activities such as compilation of the report "The Legal Status of Stateless People - Residents of Greater Sochi" and participation in the all-Russian campaign "Citizen and Police". Thus, in reality, the organisation was declared a "foreign agent" for its human rights activities. In addition, as Simonov later pointed out in his complaints, there were no grounds for the audit, it was conducted with violations, and the receipt of foreign funding was not proven.

After being included in the register, the organisation's activities had to be terminated. After a year of inactivity, the Southern Human Rights Centre was removed from the register of "foreign agents" by the Ministry of Justice at the end of 2017.

However, before that, on 14 February 2017, the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi imposed a 300,000 ruble fine on the organisation for failure to register as a "foreign agent" under part 1 of article 19.34 of the Administrative Code ("Violation of the procedure for the activities of a non-profit organisation performing the functions of a foreign agent"). The decision to impose the fine was upheld by a judge of the Krasnodar Regional Court on 5 April 2017, and on 30 June 2017 by the deputy chairman of the same court. The defence appealed it to the European Court of Human Rights.

On 15 September 2017, the Khostinsky District Bailiff Department of Sochi initiated enforcement proceedings. As part of it, the last 304.40 roubles were debited from the organisation's account. The rest of the amount Simonov was demanded to pay until 22 January 2018. He repeatedly reported that the organisation had no funds or property. Nevertheless, an enforcement fee of 21,000 roubles was imposed for non-payment of the fine, and in parallel, a series of fines were imposed on Simonov personally.

On 26 January 2018, a senior bailiff imposed a fine of 10,000 rubles under Part 1 Article 17.14 of the Code of Administrative Offences ("Violation of legislation on enforcement proceedings") for failure to comply with a request to pay a fine to an organisation. According to the lawyer, this was the first precedent when the head of a non-profit organisation was fined for non-payment of a fine by the organisation. On 15 March 2018, the decision was upheld by the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi, and on 21 May 2018 by the Krasnodar Regional Court.

On 6 September 2018, the magistrate judge of the Central District of Sochi Magistrate's Court No. 104 imposed a fine of 20,000 rubles under part 1 of article 20.25 of the Administrative Code ("Evasion of administrative punishment") for non-payment of the previous fine. The appeal was also unsuccessful.

On 13 September 2019, the Head of the Central District Bailiff Department of Sochi imposed a fine of 10,000 rubles under part 1 frticle 17.14 of the CAO ("Violation of legislation on enforcement proceedings") for allegedly failing to provide the information requested by the bailiff. Simonov reasonably claims that he provided all the requested information. On 13 February 2020, the Central District Court of Sochi upheld the ruling, and on 10 June 2020, the Krasnodar Regional Court upheld the ruling.

On 18 June 2019, the bailiff applied to the court to terminate the enforcement proceedings due to the expiry of the statute of limitations. On 4 July 2019, the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi refused to terminate the enforcement proceedings. The court found that the activities of the organisation had not ceased, although there was no information on cash receipts in the balance sheets. In her opinion, the bailiff did not take all possible actions within the scope of her powers, including the failure to foreclose on Simonov's personal property and funds. The judge proceeded from the fact that Simonov could personally receive funds for the needs of the organisation and mislead the court and supervisory authorities about their absence. The court's conclusions are unsubstantiated and based on speculation (e.g., Simonov's participation in the St. Petersburg marathon is cited as evidence that he has the material ability to pay a fine for the organisation, unspecific references to the results of the Ministry of Justice inspection are cited, etc.). On 2 October 2019, the Krasnodar Regional Court cancelled the determination and sent the case for a new hearing. However, the enforcement proceedings were transferred to another bailiff, she refused the application for termination, and on 17 December 2019, the Khostinsky District Court terminated the proceedings on the application. Simonov tried to challenge this decision and seek termination of enforcement proceedings, but on 12 February 2020 the judge dismissed the appeal. In doing so, he found that the statute of limitations for enforcement had not expired because it was interrupted by the time when Simonov, allegedly trying to avoid enforcement, changed the address of the organisation.

On 23 August 2019, a senior interrogator of the Interrogation Department of the Central District Police Department of the Internal Affairs Department of Sochi initiated a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under part 1 article 327 of the Criminal Code ("Forgery, production or circulation of forged documents, state awards, stamps, seals or letterheads") on the basis of the material of a procedural check conducted by bailiffs on the report of an FSB officer. The inspection materials stated that Simonov allegedly changed the legal address of the organisation and forged the minutes of the general meeting of members on the change of address in order to avoid paying the fine.

As part of this case, a search was conducted at Simonov's home on 12 September 2019. The door to his apartment was broken down. Several laptops, system units, flash drives, discs and documents related to the "Southern Human Rights Centre" were seized. Some of the items were packed in a way that allowed for impact without breaking the integrity of the packaging, and one of the witnesses was drunk.

Further, signs of another crime were allegedly found, and part of the case was allocated to separate proceedings and transferred to the Central District Bailiff Department of Sochi. On 18 October 2019, the leading specialist-expert (interrogator) of the Central District Bailiff Department of Sochi initiated a criminal case under part 2 of article 315 of the Criminal Code ("Failure to execute a court sentence, court decision or other judicial act").

The status of the initial criminal case is unknown. The investigation of the second case was repeatedly transferred and the investigation period was repeatedly extended.

On 13 July 2020, a preventive measure was chosen against Simonov in the form of recognizance not to leave and appropriate behaviour.

On 12 July 2021, Simonov was sentenced to 250 hours of compulsory labour. On 26 October, the court of appeal instance released Simonov from the execution of the sentence and terminated the prosecution due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.