Misuse of Anti-Extremism Legislation in February 2011

We invite you to have a look at our monthly review of state misuse of anti-extremism laws. Previously, our updates under the Racism and Xenophobia heading would have included the following, but from now on Misuse of Anti-Extremism will be posted in its own, separate update.

In this area, the usual problems of abuse remained. In summary, our research shows that there were two unlawful rulings, and one contradictory ruling. In addition, four criminal cases relying on inappropriate interpretation of the law were initiated.

The Central District Court of Omsk has sentenced leftist activist Anatoly Yurkovets under the following sections of the Russian Criminal Code: Part 1 of Article 282, incitement of social, ideological and political hatred; Section B of Part 1 of Article 213, disorderly conduct based on political, ideological hatred or hostility against any social group; and Article 329, desecration of the national flag of the Russian Federation. Yurkovets was given a suspended sentence of one year in prison for inciting hatred towards police and public officials.

The Trial Chamber of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld an October 19 2010 decision by the Moscow City Court to ban the interregional organization Army of the Will of the People (AVN). The ruling is founded on the group’s distribution of a pamphlet entitled "You have chosen, you be the judge!" which in the past has been included on the List of Extremist Materials. However, a recent court ruling decided the contents of the pamphlet do not constitute extremist material, which we had previously contended.

In February we became aware of the Cheremushkinsky Court of Moscow’s decision to ban two slogans in a blanket ruling: "Orthodoxy or death!" ("Православие или смерть!") and "Russia for the Russians!" ("Россия для русскихъ!"). We contend that the first slogan, though used by radically-minded and occasionally violent Orthodox groups, is not extremist in and of itself; historically it has been used by Orthodox monks to refer to spiritual or physical death in the absence of faith. We cannot say the same about "Russia for the Russians," which is expressly discriminatory and is often used as a call to violence. However, we doubt the slogan itself meets the definition of extremism under the law, because it can be interpreted differently in different contexts. Besides, it is written in an archaic style (using a pre-revolutionary character in the end of the last word), and it is unclear if the slogan is banned universally or only when written in the archaic style. The verdict also does not make clear whether it includes a ban t-shirts on which these slogans were printed, or simply prohibits the slogans themselves.

We are pleased with the results of two judgments made in February 2011:

First, the Zheleznodorozhny Court of Ryazan invalidated a decision that had named the police as a social group subject to incitement of hatred. This follows a warning from the Federal Service for the Supervision of Information Techonologies and Communications (Roskomnadzor) to a local newspaper for printing an article allegedly containing incitement to hatred against the police. The court sided with the newspaper that the police do not constitute such a group.

Second, the Khanty-Mansi District Court ended an ongoing dispute over the works of L. Ron Hubbard, dismissing an earlier court decision that identified them as extremist. However, the books remain on the Federal List of Extremist Materials, which could make stores or distributors carrying Hubbard’s works vulnerable to prosecution.

Four criminal cases were improperly filed in February:

Jehovah’s witnesses in Akhtubinsk (in the Astrakhan region) and Chita (in the Zabaikalsky region) were searched and prosecuted under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code, incitement to religious hatred.

A resident of Medvedkovo, in the Republic of Mari El, is charged with incitement to hatred under Part 1 of Article 282. The charge results from the creation of a group entitled "Beat the cops! Save Russia!!!" on the social networking site Vkontakte. It is our view that calls to action against law enforcement officers should be charged under a separate clause that does not classify the police as a social group.

In Barnaul, three anarchists were detained and searched under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code, disorderly conduct motivated by political hatred as member of a group by prior agreement. The charge originated in the vandalization of a billboard for a hospital. The billboard originally depicted germs causing sexually transmitted diseases, with the question, "Do you need such companions?" Over the germs were pasted pictures of Putin, Medvedev, Zyuganov, Zhirinovsky, and the regional governor, Alexander Karlin. It is SOVA’s view that defacement of the advertisement amounts to nothing more than an expression of dissatisfaction with sitting politicians.

We would also like to note that prosecutors in the Orenburg region are reviewing the materials of a potential lawsuit that hopes to name several Muslim texts as extremist. The texts include a collection of eighteenth-century Tatar theological works, as well as contemporary writings by chairman of the Russian Mufti Council Ravil Gainutdin, rector of Moscow Islamic University Marat Murtazin, and deputy chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of European Russia, Mustafa Kyutyukchu.