Voice of Beslan Committee accused of extremism

On December 24, 2007, the "Voice of Beslan" committee received a notification from the prosecutor's office of Ingushetia that one of their materials contained signs of extremism, namely "the deliberately false accusation of President Putin V.V. of complicity in terrorism and that he became the guarantor for criminals . "

On January 15, 2008, at a meeting of the Federal Court of the Nazran District of Ingushetia, a decision was made to transfer the case to North Ossetia.

We are talking about the address of the organization "Voice of Beslan" dated November 30, 2005, entitled "To all who sympathize with the victims of the Beslan terrorist attack!"

The prosecutor's submission contains quotations from the appeal, in which signs of extremism were found:

* "With horror, we must admit: today terrorist attacks have become the most effective political mechanism in Russia, with the help of terrorist attacks our government solves its political and commercial problems. We rightfully accuse the current Russian regime of complicity with Russian and world terrorism.

Not a single terrorist attack committed in Putin's Russia has been investigated. Dozens of serious crimes against peaceful citizens of our country remained unpunished and anonymous.

We are to blame for having elected a president who solves his problems with the help of tanks, flamethrowers and gas, because of which the former Nord-Ost hostages give birth to handicapped children.

But we are not to blame for the fact that the world political elite supports our president, who has become a guarantor for criminals.

We are forced to live in a country where the prosecutor's office openly lies and commits malfeasance, where officials give false testimony in court, and the president himself, during the days of mourning, publicly deceives the mothers and fathers of dead and maimed children. The lie about 354 hostages is the choice of our president. It is easier for him to show his ignorance than to punish his fellow security forces for their total incompetence and corruption."*

In his submission, the prosecutor asks to recognize this material as extremist and "confiscate" it from the websites www.pravdabeslana.ru , www.demos-center.ru and www.hro.org .

Recall that a knowingly false accusation of an official of extremist activity, according to anti-extremist legislation, is extremism. We have repeatedly pointed out the dubious legitimacy of this norm as such.

However, it seems to us that none of the accusations cited by the prosecutor's office against the authorities by the "Voice of Beslan" committee falls under the definition of extremism. Neither lies, nor the use of certain means such as tanks, nor the failure to investigate the terrorist attacks, which the document under consideration accuses the Russian government and the president personally, are extremism. Even in those lines where the authorities are accused of using terrorist attacks to solve their problems and aiding terrorism, we do not see accusations of actually organizing terrorist activities or aiding any particular organization, and therefore these accusations do not fall under the definition of extremism.

Representatives of the committee insist on an independent examination of the material that aroused the suspicions of the prosecutor's office.

Sources

• Prosecutor's office of Nazran saw extremist statements in the statement of the committee "Voice of Beslan" // New Newspaper. 2007. December 24.
• Representation of acting Prosecutor of the city of Nazran M.Kh. // Voice of Beslan. 2008. January 9th. PDF file.
• Prosecutor's office of Ingushetia asks the court to recognize the appeal of the public organization "Voice of Beslan" as extremist // Voice of Beslan. 2008. January 9th.
• To all who sympathize with the victims of the Beslan terrorist attack! // Voice of Beslan. 2005. November 30.
• Kid O. Slick pass // Kasparov.ru. 2008. January 15.