Samara ecologist may be accused of extremism

On April 16, 2010, it became known that a criminal case had been initiated in Samara, in which employees of the regional Center "E" and the department for combating economic crimes searched the office of the co-chairman of the International Social and Ecological Union, a member of the regional Public Chamber Sergey Simak .

The case was reportedly initiated under "Article 282 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Extremism")" (probably referring to Part 2 of Article 282 (inciting hatred) or, which is unlikely, Article 282.2 (organizing the activities of an extremist organizations)).

During the search, documents and a computer belonging to Simak were seized. The police intend to send it for examination in order to check whether it uses counterfeit software.

The criminal case was opened on the basis of an anonymous report to Center "E", which stated that extremist slogans were heard at a picket organized by Samara environmentalists in defense of a relic pistachio-juniper forest on the Black Sea coast of Russia.

Let us recall that earlier similar claims were made against the "Baikal Ecological Wave" in Irkutsk.

Sources

• Defenders of nature found a case // Samara newspaper. 2010. April 16.