Roman Zamuraev acquitted in Kostroma

November 1, 2010 Sverdlovsk District Court of Kostroma rendered an acquittal against Roman Zamuraev, who posted in Internet text recognized as extremist leaflet of the People's Will Army (AVN) "You chose - you judge!" Recall that he was accused of violating Part 1 Art. 282 (inciting social hatred) Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Zamuraev was justified for the following reasons. Court not saw in his actions the composition of the article on inciting hatred: the prosecutor's office insisted that the actions aimed at inciting hatred, there was an extremist article posted on the Internet, for which, as the court pointed out, liability under Art. 20.29 (mass distribution of extremist materials) of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. (Note also that the article was declared extremist in 2008, and Zamuraev posted it on the Internet one year earlier.)

In addition, the court occupied a rare, if not unique, for our jurisprudence position about expert opinions. Faced with the fact that different experts, after examining the text of the leaflet, came to conflicting conclusions, and resolve these contradictions within this court session is impossible, the court interpreted all the irremovable doubts in favor of the defendant.

Judge Trifonova also pointed out that the social a group cannot be considered not only ″persons, non-aligned with the ABN, but also representatives of the legislature and executive power, since they are not have an internal organization, a common goals of activity, cohesion and community of interests.

Prosecutor's office Kostroma sent a cassation submission of this verdict to the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of Kostroma regional court. The main argument prosecutors is the fact of the ban flyers as an exciting social hatred.

Sources

• Materials on the "case" of Roman Zamuraev // AVN website. 2010.