The European Court of Human Rights communicated complaints from Russian Muslims about the book ban

4 April 2011, the ECtHR addressed questions to the Russian Federation regarding two complaints of Russian Muslims about the inclusion of Islamic books in the Federal List extremist materials.

First the complaint concerns a ban in August 2007 by the Buguruslan City Court Orenburg region 17 titles of Muslim books. This decision became infamous due to the fact that it became known only later several months, when the Federal List of Extremist materials. Up until the publication of the decision in June 2008, there was not even it is clear which materials are prohibited, since they were not included in the List bibliographic data. Within six months before publication, lawyer Rustem Valiullin and the Spiritual Board of Muslims The "Association of Mosques of Russia" tried to obtain a copy of the decision in order to to appeal against it, but they were denied under the pretext that they were not process participants.

European the court demands to immediately provide a copy of the decision of the Buguruslan court, as well as answer a series of questions:

- whether the applicants are victims of a violation of the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and freedom of expression (Articles 9, 10 of the European Convention for the Protection human rights and fundamental freedoms);

- Is the ban on the distribution of Islamic books an interference with the rights applicants for freedom of thought, conscience of religion and freedom of expression and whether such interference is permissible in a democratic society;

• whether there is a violation of the applicants' right to an effective remedy legal protection (Article 13 of the Convention), given that the representatives Muslim community were not notified of hearings in the courts for recognition extremist materials, court decisions were not announced publicly, and the applicants they could not even get copies of them, let alone access to the case file.

Second the complaint concerns a ban in May 2007 by the Koptevskiy District Court Moscow of a number of books by the Turkish theologian Said Nursi. It was sent to the ECtHR by the Nuru-Badi Cultural and Educational Foundation and its executive director Ibragim Ibragimov. The applicants consider that the decision of the Kotevsky court violated their right to a fair trial proceedings (Article 6 of the Convention), since the court was closed, as well as their rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and to freedom of expression (arts. 9, 10 conventions).

ECtHR asked Russia questions similar to those concerning Valliulin's complaint, and demanded to provide copies and certified translations of the conclusions experts, on the basis of which Nursi's books were banned.

The communication of complaints "Rustem Valliulin and the Association of Mosques of Russia v. Russia" and "Ibragim Ibragimov and the Nuru-Badi Cultural and Educational Foundation v. Russia" can be found on the website of the Open News Agency. On April 9, the Russian text of the request was published .

Sources

• European Court of Justice Communicates Muslim Complaints about Recognizing Islamic Books as Extremist (DOCUMENTS) // Open news agency. 2011. April 4.
• Document : Request of the European Court to Russia on the reasons for the ban on S. Nursi's books // NurRu.com. 2011. April 9.