Misuse of Anti-Extremism Legislation in September 2011

Misuse of anti-extremist legislation for the first month of autumn 2011 remained within the bounds of our biannual report for this year, published in Russian on September 22 and forthcoming in English.

Criminal Prosecution

It is Sova’s position that anti-extremism legislation was misused in the initiation of charges in two instances this month: in Cheboksary, Jehovah’s Witnesses are accused under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement to religious hatred), while in Sterlitamak (in Bashkortostan) a group of Muslims are accused, under parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code, of membership in the radical group Hizb ud-Tahrir.

Three improper convictions were also issued. The recipients of these rulings include a Murmansk man convicted of membership in the banned National Bolshevik Party, and an Ulyanovsk follower of Said Nursi sentenced to a year of corrective labor. Both were charged under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code, while the Ulyanovsk individual was also charged under Part 1 of Article 282, incitement to hatred.

We would like to draw particular attention to the third conviction, which saw a Kaliningrad publisher fined 110,000 RUB (approx. 3,365 USD at the time of writing) after he was found guilty of "humiliation of the dignity of individuals on grounds of religious affiliation by use of the media," which is contained in Part 1 of Article 282. We take note of this case for two reasons. First, while defendant Boris Obraztsov did make derogatory remarks against members of the Orthodox Church and believers in general, we do not find comments as such fit for criminal prosecution. We submit that humiliation of others should be decriminalized, and thereby converted to an administrative offense. Second, while the court found Obraztsov guilty, he was fined only slightly more than the minimum stipulated by the Criminal Code.

Administrative Prosecution

An administrative penalty was wrongly imposed in Saratov, when a Yabloko Party member was fined 2,000 RUB (approx. 61 USD at the time of writing) for a violation of Article 20.29 of the Administrative Code, distribution of extremist materials. The charge was brought as the result of a hyperlink on the defendant’s vkontakte.ru page leading to a video that had previously been deemed extremist.

Prohibition of Extremist Materials

The Federal List of Extremist Materials was supplemented by a July 22 ruling against a website published at www.nbp-info.ru by supporters of Eduard Limonov’s banned National Bolshevik Party.

Additionally, a court in Naberezhnye Chelny banned thirteen titles by L. Ron Hubbard, and Church of Scientology representatives claim they learned of the ban from the press, as the trial was held in a closed session. An appeal has already been made on the decision (with the Ministry of Justice being informed in the process), on the grounds that the materials in question would not appear on the Federal List of Extremist Materials before the decision entered into force, as has been the case in the past with materials from the Church of Scientology.

Other Illegal Actions

We would like to note the dismissal of Andrey Kutuzov, the Tyumen State University professor who had been convicted under Part 1 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code, public calls to extremist activity, after the publication and distribution of leaflets containing the slogan "Cops to the Wall!" The defense presented proof that evidence against Kutuzov had been falsified by the prosecution, which the court did not take into account. The court’s decision did not call for his dismissal or suspension from teaching; the University maintains the sacking was of its own initiative.

Among other law enforcement actions we would like to highlight an Inquisition-type operation carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, entitled "The Apostates." The operation was organized as a surveillance measure against Jehovah’s Witnesses, and exists to collect information against various branches of the group before adding individual believers to a database of so-called extremists.

Sanctions Against "Bystanders"

In terms of what we would call "accidental" victims of improperly used anti-extremism law, we include here individuals not connected to the activities of socio-political movements, religious minorities or opposition media; in short those who do not represent the usual, vulnerable groups but in any case still faced excessive anti-extremism measures.

The most striking – and one of the most common – victims of these incidents are library staff; Sova has been reporting on the persecution of directors of libraries for several years. This month we observed a new burst of persecution in this field, as libraries were faced with audits and other official actions in at least ten cases. Fortunately, this time, none of the cases attempted to prosecute a library director in administrative court, as has happened in the past.

Another example is the demand that some Internet service providers block access to sites not deemed extremist in and of themselves, but containing content seeming extremist to a prosecutor’s office. These types of lawsuits took place in Yoshkar-Ola, Saratov, Ufa, and Nazran during September. Most ISPs do not consider themselves responsible for content visited by users, but courts including the Supreme Court interpret current legislation in such a way that ISPs can be and indeed are held liable. It is Sova’s position that this interpretation of the law is improper and can lead to draconian decisions, i.e. major Internet portals being blocked solely because of a single publication therein.

Countering Excessive Anti-Extremism

Earlier, we had posted about the Internet portal Live Kuban, which was charged with proving its legal right to show photographs of Nazi symbols, as is typically required in the reportage genre. Live Kuban journalists were unsuccessful in doing so, however, having been tried under the law "On perpetuation of the Soviet people's victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945," which unequivocally and unfeasibly prohibits any display of Nazi or related symbols.

The portal’s editor-in-chief was able, however, to discuss this situation with Sergey Sitnikov, the director of Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media control and registration agency. As a result, Sitnikov promised to send a letter to the Prosecutor General requesting the case's withdrawal. He also proposed the creation of an interagency working group to "eliminate contradictions in legislation regarding the qualification of images of Nazi symbols – so that similar situations no longer arise in Russia."

Certainly, it is a long way from a proposal to change current law, but in any case we are pleased that a Roskomnadzor official has recognized the problem and is prepared to take steps to solve it.