From 282 to 280

On June 5, the Soviet District Court of Ulan-Ude began a new consideration of the case under part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (excitement of social hatred) against local activists Nadezhda Nizovkina and Tatyana Sttsura. Nizovkina told the OVD-Info that, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations in this case, they were not threatened with punishment, but the court may become a prelude to a new criminal case against her.

Nizovkin and Stetsura are known as the co -chairs of the Buryat branch of Solidarity and the opposition activists noticeable for their region.

In 2009, a criminal case was opened against them under the 282nd article of the Criminal Code. They were accused because of their texts (published in the newspaper "Free Word" and in the form of leaflets) in inciting hatred of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, armed forces and the FSIN.

“Leaflets that activists distributed in Ulan-Ude cannot be attributed to the number of materials that have extremist content. This applies both to the leaflet of the memory of the 65th anniversary of the deportation of the population of the Chia SSR, and to the other two-in defense of the Buryat Imam Bakhtiyar Umarov and the political emigrant Elena Muglevanna. These materials did not call for the implementation of violent or discriminatory actions, exactly just like the goals of inciting hatred or enmity did not serve on the grounds of belonging to the social group, ”in 2011, “ Memorial ” cited this among the grounds for recognizing them by the Politicals.

Human rights activists have repeatedly emphasized that, in principle, they do not agree with the practice of applying the 282nd article: “Social Group protected by law” cannot be component of state authority. On the contrary, the “protected social group” should be weak, subjected to discrimination, to be a victim of xenophobia.

On December 31, 2010, before the rally “Strategies-31” in Ulan-Ude, Nizovkin and Stetsur were taken into custody. A wide human rights campaign was held in their support. In January 2011, he sentenced a conviction (fines of 100 thousand rubles each), which was soon canceled by the Supreme Court of Buryatia. The judge Irina Lewandovskaya who pronounced was subsequently devoid of judicial status for violation of professional ethics - a scandal arose with her indecent photographs from social networks.

The new consideration of the case began only on June 5, 2014. Nizovkina told the OVD-Info that she and her friend opposed the closure of the case for non-rehabilitating circumstances. Stetsura refused to participate in the new process - according to Nizovkina, such is their coordinated tactics. Stetsura submitted an appropriate application, arguing that Nizovkina has much more relation to ill -fated leaflets. Stetsura and Nizovkina believe that Nizovkina alone will be easier to defend.

It is not clear why the new process over activists began only now - after all, quite a lot of time has passed since 2011. Nizovkina says that they themselves were on departure for almost a year - the interests of the inhabitants of Krymsk, who suffered from floods, represented in courts as lawyers. But for more than a year now she and her friend in Buryatia, so the current resumption of the court may indicate certain plans of Buryat law enforcement officers.

She believes that the new series of persecution is connected with the lecture that she read at the end of May about the legal status of the Buryat ethnos (see http://nad-niz.livejournal.com/5676.html and http://nad-niz.livejournal.com/6112.html ). After this lecture, the official “newspaper of the Republic of Buryatia” accused Nizovkin of violation of Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code (“Public calls for the implementation of actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of Russia”).

Nizovkina notes that stuffing in the media had already begun against her: they were allegedly detained in the court building, and they gave a non -departure subscription. Nizovkina explains that during the investigation of the case, along with Sttsura, she refused to give a subscription, so that such stuffing may be an attempt to show that she is “morally broken”.

Nizovkina assumes that the case of 280.1 is being prepared against her - just for its preparation, law enforcement officers need time. Although in the current case, which is considered in court, she cannot be punished, the court will probably plead guilty, that is, she will formally be convicted. In addition, the fact that now Nizovkin is “judged for extremism” should prevent her from reading such lectures in the near future.