Article 282 for speaking on an Internet forum

On February 21, 2006, it became known about another criminal case indirectly related to the cartoon scandal . This time the case under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was initiated by the Altai Regional Prosecutor's Office.

The reason for this was one of the comments to the letter of Rosokhrankultura about the inadmissibility of publishing drawings "depicting in caricature the prototypes of world religions" . The letter was published on the website of the Bankfax agency on February 17, 2006, on the same day one of the readers of the news left a comment on the website, in which, allegedly, the "principle of Roman law regarding the punishment for blasphemy" was given, and then an article from one of the Argentine newspapers was quoted, "containing a number of harsh assessments of attacks on embassies in Muslim countries that have taken place in recent days, and also spoke about double standards in assessments of religious conflicts" .

On February 19, 2006, a representative of the editorial office of Bankfax was summoned for a conversation to the prosecutor's office of the Altai Territory on the grounds that the prosecutor's office, represented by the assistant to the regional prosecutor Valery Ziyastinov, considered that the commentator "had spoken about Muslims in terms degrading national and religious dignity. " "I believe that such a publication, as well as its author, should be assessed in the framework of the criminal process," V. Ziyastinov noted in his report to the regional prosecutor Alexander Kochergin. A. Kochergin instructed to interview employees of the Bankfax agency about this, and also sent an instruction to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Altai Territory to identify the commentator. The head of the Rosokhrankultura department for the Siberian Federal District, who arrived in Barnaul on an emergency business trip, joined the prosecutor's office. On February 18, 2005, verification was started for compliance with the requirements of the Federal Law "On countering extremist activity" in the agency's activities.

The editors of the site "decided to restrict access to the text of the comment until this issue is clarified ."

On February 21, 2006, the Prosecutor's Office of the Altai Territory completed the inspection and opened a criminal case under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The suspect in this criminal case is the author of the comment, and the main activity of the investigation will be to establish his identity. The composition of suspects and subsequently accused in a case may change significantly during the course of an investigation. On February 21, 2006, interrogations of witnesses began in this criminal case.

Comm. In this story, the most remarkable thing is that "comments on the news" is a way for the media to communicate interactively with their audience, in fact, an Internet forum, a platform for the free exchange of opinions, to which the editors of the publication have practically nothing to do. Any reader of the news can leave a comment - and even without registering. How the prosecutor's office is going to look for the "suspect" remains a complete mystery, and why the prosecutor's office talked to the editors of Bankfax remains a mystery. Following this logic, if, for example, someone leaves such a comment on the website of the regional prosecutor's office, an employee of the prosecutor's office should be called to explain.

On the other hand, this initiative of the Altai Regional Prosecutor's Office fully corresponds to the spirit of the amendments to the anti-extremist legislation initiated by the State Duma . And the next step in the investigative practice, apparently, should be the prosecution of the provider, through which the connection between the publication and the anonymous author of the commentary was carried out. Especially when you consider that, in accordance with the existing legislation, "extremist", in particular, is considered "...providing for the implementation of these activities ... telephone, facsimile and other types of communication, information services, other material and technical means" (Article 1, part 4 of the current Law "On counteracting extremist activity").

Sources

• "Caricature scandal" reached Altai: Rosokhrankultura and prosecutor's office suspect that one of the comments on the Bankfax website may serve as a pretext for criminal prosecution for inciting religious hatred // Bankfax. 2006. February 20.
• The prosecutor's office of the Altai Territory opened a criminal case under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, investigating the incident with the publication in the framework of the so-called. "caricature scandal" // Bankfax. 2006. February 21.
• In Altai, a case was opened against the author who humiliated Muslims on the Internet // Gazeta.ru. 2006. February 21.
• The prosecutor's office of the Altai Territory is looking for a commentator who offended Muslims // ANN. 2006. February 21.
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