A trial is underway in Angarsk to recognize an anti-Semitic poem as extremist

On August 16, 2009, the Angarsk City Court (Irkutsk Region) began considering a case on recognizing one of the articles in a local newspaper as extremist material.

On March 1, 2007, the newspaper "Vsya Nedelya. Angarsk" published an anti-Semitic poem by G. Chipizubov "What is our people guilty of?", in which the author blamed the Jews for all the troubles in Russia and urged them to "soak in the toilet." The editors of the newspaper did not agree with the author's opinion, however, "the editorial board decided that any opinions of readers, even marginal ones, are worthy of attention and discussion" .

Local resident Elena Shogan appealed to the prosecutor's office. A criminal case was initiated against the newspaper. The author of the poem was not found: a person with such data is not registered in Angarsk. In the spring of 2009 the case was closed "due to the absence of a crime event".

The city prosecutor wrote an application to a civil court with the aim of recognizing the article as extremist and including it in the all-Russian list of extremist materials . "Our actions are aimed not at criminal prosecution of any persons, but at recognizing this article as extremist material and prohibiting subsequent distribution and publication ," Angarsk prosecutor Dmitry Pogudin said.

At the first court session, it was decided to postpone the consideration of the case to September 4, 2009.

Sources

• The article of the Angarsk newspaper is required to be recognized as extremist material // GTRK-Irkutsk. 2009. August 17.
• Is Chipozubov an extremist? // AEN. 2009. August 17.