Unlawful anti-extremism in June 2013

We publish an overview of the main and the most significant events in the field of misuse anti-extremist legislation in Russia in June 2013.

Rulemaking

On June 29, 2013, the President signed the Federal Law "On Amendments to the Criminal code of the Russian Federation and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation in order to counter insult to religious beliefs and feelings citizens, desecration of objects and objects of religious veneration (pilgrimage), places of religious rites and ceremonies". Earlier in June, he received the approval of the deputies of the State Duma (in third reading) and senators and entered into force on 1 July 2013. Recall under the new law introduces, inter alia, criminal liability for public actions expressing a clear disrespect for society and committed for the purpose of insulting religious feelings of believers (for more details, see here ). With our position on the new norm can be found here .

On June 21, 2013, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the second and third readings Law "On amendments to Article 9 of the Federal Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious associations", and on June 26 the bill was approved by the Federation Council. It is proposed to supplement the article with paragraph 3, which prohibits become a founder, participant or member of a religious organization, in in particular, foreigners or stateless persons "in respect of whom, in in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, a decision was made on the undesirability of their stay (residence) in the Russian Federation", and persons whose activities are recognized by the court extremist. Note that since Russian law does not provide definition of participation in a religious organization, and many such organizations do not have a fixed membership, there are extensive opportunities for arbitrariness.

On June 22, 2013, the Government submitted to the State Duma draft law on tougher penalties under Art. 280 (calls for extremist activities), 282 (inciting hatred and enmity), 282.1 (participation in extremist community) and 282.2 (continuation of the activities of the organization, banned for extremism) of the Criminal Code. For all Articles increase the amount of fines and the terms of forced labor, and for three of them, except for Art. 282, - and the upper limits of imprisonment. Thus, it is proposed transfer most of the crimes provided for by these anti-extremist articles, from the category of crimes of small gravity to the category of medium gravity. This will make it possible to apply to extremists "the whole arsenal of means and methods of operational-search activity . The Government explains the need for such measures by the fact that currently in Russia is experiencing the activation of "religious extremism", and it is required preventive measures to prevent the rise of terrorism. severity bill, which runs counter to general policy in criminal law, is intended to demonstrate the special concern of the society with this particular threat. However the idea of ​​extending the terms of imprisonment for the sake of giving "signals to society" and the convenience of the investigation does not seem to us justified. In addition, intimidation cannot be an effective method of combating with radical groups.

Criminal prosecution

At the beginning of June, the city court Petersburg confirmed the verdict in the case of activists of the "Other Russia", issued at the end of 2012 by the Vyborgsky District Court of St. Petersburg. Recall that they were found guilty of participating in activities banned NBP under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organizations) and sentenced to a fine, but released from liability for expiration of the statute of limitations. They intend to appeal verdict in the European Court of Human Rights. From a defense point of view, in court it has not been proven that the meetings of members of The Other Russia are identical meetings of the NBP.

Meanwhile, at the end of the month, the Military Court of the Severomorsk the garrison found the officer of the Northern Fleet Denis Bespalov guilty under part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to a fine of 75 thousand rubles also for participation in meetings of The Other Russia.

In June, two criminal cases under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 CC v adherents banned movement "Tablighi Jamaat" - in the Krasnoyarsk Territory a resident of Kansk is accused, in the Republic of Altai - two imams from the villages of Kosh-Agach and Tashanta. We consider it illegal prohibition of the Tablighi Jamaat religious association, which was engaged in propaganda of Islam and not seen in any calls for violence, and we believe unjustified persecution of his supporters.

Administrative the pursuit

At the end of June it became known that the editor-in-chief one of the newspapers of the Smolensk region was brought to justice by the world court under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda or public display of Nazi symbols or paraphernalia). The reason was that published in the newspaper an article on countering extremism was illustrated swastika image. From our point of view, the demonstration of Nazi symbols in the absence of propaganda purposes, should not be prosecuted.

In the second half of June, information about administrative case under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (dissemination of extremist materials) against the owner of a bookstore in Togliatti. In her shop in free sale there were forbidden books by Osman Nuri Topbash "Constellation Righteous Caliphs" and "Fortress of the Muslim" by Said Bin Ali Bin Waqfa Al Qahtani. These books are among 68 other religious works were recognized as extremist by the Leninsky District Court of Orenburg in March 2012. We believe that the ban on these books is unlawful.

For the same article The administrative code at the beginning of the month was fined by the Novocheboksarsky city court for 2 thousand rubles the head of a local firm - an Internet provider for not provided restriction of access of users to prohibited for extremism materials on the web. We note that Art. 20.29 Administrative Code provides for punishment for an intentional offense, and not for official omission.

On the same days in the city of Chaplygin, Lipetsk Region, the world the court found the owner of the ENERGY computer room guilty of administrative offense for hours. 2 Article. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation legislation on the protection of children from information harmful to their health and (or) development) and fined him 5 thousand rubles. The reason for the claim was that the content filters installed on the computers in the room did not perform the task in in full, in particular, did not block access to certain extremist materials. Existing content filtering systems are ineffective, and the blame for this cannot be blamed on the owners of computer clubs, Internet cafes and etc.

Prohibition of materials for extremism

In the second half of June, the Uspensky District Court Krasnodar Territory recognized the book of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist material "Bearing Witness to God's Kingdom" (Germany, 2009). The process dragged on for two years, several examinations were carried out on the case, twice the experts concluded that the book contained no signs of extremism. Despite this, the court considered that the book " contains information inciting religious hatred, as well as violating the rights, freedoms and legal interests of a person and a citizen, depending on his religious affiliation . As a reminder, we consider the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses and the banning of their texts as extremism illegal.

Other state and public actions

In early June, the prosecutor's office of Matveyevo-Kurgan district of the Rostov region filed a claim with the court demanding dismantle the sign "Falun Dafa Qigong - Cultivation", on which also included the website address for the book Zhuan Falun. Prosecutor's office also sent a lawsuit to the court demanding to oblige Rostelecom to limit access to the site mentioned on the sign. Recall several "Falun Dafa" materials have been recognized extremist in 2011 by the Pervomaisky District Court of Krasnodar, a complaint against This decision has been filed with the ECtHR. We have repeatedly stated that we consider the persecution "Falun Dafa" unfounded and illegal.

In the middle of the month, Roskomnadzor issued a warning website MK.ru, which posted the illegally banned Pussy Riot video "Punk Prayer" Mother of God, drive Putin away.

In the same days it became known that the site Promise.ru applied to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a claim for recognition invalid warning issued to him by Roskomnadzor for publishing materials about the artist Artem Loskutov, illustrated with a photograph created by them T-shirts with a stylized image of the Pussy Riot icon. Previously, a number of media received warnings for the same images, and the site Grani.ru even twice. Representatives Promises.ru notes that, in accordance with Art. 1 Federal law "On countering extremist activity", means mass media are prohibited from distributing materials recognized as legally extremist and included in the Federal List of Extremist materials. Loskutov for this T-shirt was repeatedly attracted to administrative responsibility, but the T-shirt itself is not an extremist material recognized.

In June, law enforcement agencies in different regions of Russia confiscated copies of opposition printed matter, citing the need to testing it for extremism or simply declaring it unfounded "forbidden". So in Krasnodar and Krasnogorsk near Moscow, activists seized copies of the newspaper "For Navalny" (tens of thousands of copies), and in the Kirov region for the seizure of materials at the headquarters of Navalny's supporters, held in May, two employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were awarded. In Yaroslavl, activists of the local branch who held the picket party "Civil Platform" Mikhail Prokhorov, policemen selected three hundred leaflets with the program of the party. Withdrawal practice law enforcement agencies of circulation or large quantities of printed materials for testing "for extremism" is illegal. For verification a few copies are sufficient.