The SOVA Center presented its annual report on “illegal anti-extremism”

On April 24, 2013, a presentation of the SOVA Center’sreport “Illegal application of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in 2012” took place in Moscow at the Independent Press Center.

The author of the report, Maria Kravchenko, told journalists and members of the public about the main trends in “illegal anti-extremism” noted in the past year. Not only political activists were persecuted, but also representatives of religious minorities and even library employees. Law enforcement agencies are increasingly blocking access to popular Internet services, and courts are banning hundreds of “extremist materials,” which include a wide variety of literature, including the works of medieval Sufis.

Lawyer Aidar Sultanov, author of the book “Protection of freedom of conscience, dissemination of beliefs through the prism of rulings of the European Court of Human Rights,” touched upon the problem of recognizing materials as extremist in special proceedings.

Deputy editor-in-chief of the website Agentura.ru Irina Borogan devoted her speech to the situation with the system of blocking Internet sites. She drew the attention of those gathered to the Unified Register of Prohibited Sites, analyzed the blocking mechanisms and the problems of using DPI technology.

Organizations that may pose a certain social danger in Russia are often subject to disproportionate charges, including extremism, as shown by the example of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the director of the SOVA Center, Alexander Verkhovsky. In addition, he expressed the opinion that the situation in the area of ​​unlawful persecution will worsen: this could result from the adoption of a bill on the protection of the feelings of believers and amendments to the law “On Freedom of Conscience” proposed by the State Council of Tatarstan.

Then the presentation participants answered questions from those gathered.

Sources

• Sob. inf.