Unlawful anti-extremism in September 2013

We publish an overview of the main and most significant developments in the field of illegal application of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in September 2013. Rulemaking

At the end of September, the president introduced a bill to the State Duma providing for the introduction of a set of new anti-terrorist measures. IN In particular, it is proposed to introduce liability for organizing a terrorist community and participation in it and for the continuation of the activities of the prohibited terrorist organization, similar to anti-extremist art. 282.1 and 282.2 of the Criminal Code, respectively, but the punishment provided for much more severe than under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Because even now people are often prosecuted for their involvement in organizations banned unlawfully, we fear the continuation of this practice, but with more severe consequences.

Criminal prosecution

At the beginning of September, the Main Investigation Department The ICR announced the initiation of a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (excitation hatred or enmity, as well as the humiliation of human dignity, committed organized group) against two musicians from the punk band Bloodhound Gang and other unidentified persons on the fact of desecration of the Russian flag, which one of the musicians, during a concert in an Odessa nightclub, put in your pants. The Investigative Committee regarded these actions as "humiliating the national dignity of citizens Russian Federation" . We do not agree with this interpretation incident, since the word "national" in the Criminal Code has always been understood as "ethnic", not as a "civilian". To protect the dignity of citizens from such actions there is art. 329 UK (desecration of the coat of arms or flag).

At the end of September, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Chelyabinsk Region filed a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 Criminal Code on the fact of distribution in Chelyabinsk of leaflets of religious and political party "Hizb ut-Tahrir", as well as the appearance on the streets of the city of banners with quotes from the Koran and posters protesting against the ban on the popular translation of the Qur'an (see below). Muslim scripture is not extremist literature, posters "Islam is forbidden in Russia" and "Muslims! There are 20 million of us in Russia, and our Koran is forbidden!" cannot be considered extremist, and as for the Hizb ut-Tahrir materials, they are persecuted in Russia due to the fact that this party is banned, but almost never apply Art. 282, which makes one doubt that that this time the leaflets contained incitement to hatred on ethnic or religious grounds.

In September it became known that the leader of the Association of Pomors of the Arkhangelsk region, Ivan Moseev, who was sentenced Oktyabrsky District Court of Arkhangelsk under Part 1 Art. 282 of the Criminal Code to a fine, as a result of this sentence, he faced a large-scale loss of rights. According to Moseev himself, in early September At the request of the prosecutor's office, he was dismissed from his position at the university and position of director of the Pomor Institute of Indigenous Minorities of the North. In addition, on the proposal of the Ministry of Justice, he was excluded from all Russian public organizations in which he was a member. Earlier, Moseev was included in the list of persons involved in terrorism and extremism, which is conducted by Rosfinmonitoring, and now Russian banks refuse to open accounts for him. The actions of all these departments seem to us unlawful, since they are a consequence of unlawfully the sentence passed. Recall that Moseev was accused of leaving website of the news agency "Echo of the North" comment under the nickname "Pomors", insulting ethnic Russians. From our point of view, the statement left on the site "Echo of the North", which served as an occasion to initiate a criminal case, can be attributed to hate speech, but it is not represented a public danger and did not give grounds for criminal persecution.

Administrative persecution

In September for distribution of extremist materials under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses were wrongfully fined: the director of the library from Sergiev Posad - for possession of a banned brochure of Jehovah's Witnesses (details about the contradiction between anti-extremist and library legislation, see here ), owner of a bookstand from the city of Menzelinsk (Tatarstan) - for trade groundlessly banned collection of prayers "Fortress of the Muslim", as well as a prisoner of the colony in Adygeysk - for allegedly letting two people read other prisoners "40 Hadith" - Muslim theological treatise XIII century, for some unknown reason, recognized as extremist.

Civil Litigation

At the beginning of the month it became known that The Central District Court of Novosibirsk recognized the painting by Artem Loskutov with images stylized as icons of members of the group "Pussy Riot" "information that offends religious feelings of citizens, the distribution of which on the territory of the Russian Federation is prohibited . The decision of the court entered into force. So the picture will be included in The federal register of information, the dissemination of which on the Internet forbidden. Recall that Loskutov was found guilty under Part 2 of Art. 5.26 Administrative Code for insulting the religious feelings of citizens upon the fact of placing paintings on advertising stands in the center of Novosibirsk. Prosecutor's office Zheleznodorozhny district of Novosibirsk in a lawsuit against the painting referred to the law "On information, information technologies and information protection" a ban on the dissemination of information, for the dissemination of which subject to criminal or administrative liability. However, we we consider the decision of the Central District Court of Novosibirsk unlawful, since Loskutov was unlawfully convicted under Part 2 of Art. 5.26: from our point of view, there was no composition in his actions crimes.

In mid-September it became It is known that back in early August, the Central District Court of Tver recognized as extremist official website of Jehovah's Witnesses jw.org. The decision of the court is not yet in force entered. The reason for the ban was that the website posted the texts of several pamphlets of Jehovah's Witnesses, wrongfully recognized extremist.

On the same days, the Birobidzhan District Court banned Jehovah's Witnesses brochure Good News from God. Court decision in has not entered into force. As usual, the pamphlet was banned for advocating the supremacy of the religion of the Witnesses Jehovah over others, although such ideas are naturally inherent in adepts any religion and can in no way be considered a sign of extremism.

The biggest misuse event of the month anti-extremist legislation was the scandalous decision of the October District Court of Novorossiysk, issued on 17 September. The court granted the claim transport prosecutor's office of the city and recognized as extremist the book of the famous Azerbaijani religious philosopher Elmir Guliyev "Semantic translation of the Holy Quran into Russian" - a translation that is used popular with a large number of Russian Muslims. According to certificate of research of the Forensic Expert Center of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Krasnodar Territory, "in this book has statements that negatively evaluate a person or a group of people according to signs of attitude to a particular religion (in particular, non-Muslims); contain statements that talk about the advantage of one person or groups of persons in front of other people on the basis of their attitude to religion, in particular, Muslims over non-Muslims; statements containing a positive assessment of hostile actions of one group of persons in relation to another group of persons, united by sign of attitude to religion, in particular, Muslims in relation to non Muslims as well as statements of a motivational nature, according to the semantic understanding calling for hostile and violent actions of one group of persons in relation to another group of persons united on the basis of their attitude to religion, in particular, Muslims in relation to non-Muslims" . Similar findings can be done by familiarizing yourself with most of the ancient religious literature, however, this does not provide grounds for banning the sacred books of world religions.

The Court, however, does not guided and, without hesitation, indicated in the decision that the extremist the book is to be destroyed. Note that the publication contains the Koran in Arabic with parallel translation into Russian. If the decision comes into force, its application becomes very problematic, since the destruction of the Koran (at least - Arabic text) is a completely unacceptable action for Muslims.

Not surprisingly, most Russian Muslim leaders were outraged by the decision of the Novorossiysk court. Yes, Council muftis of Russia addressed the President of Russia with an official statement, demanding its revision. Some religious figures have said they do not accept the transfer Kuliyeva, considering him Salafi, however, they see the danger in the prevailing recent years in Russia the practice of prohibitions of authoritative Islamic literature.

On September 23, lawyer Ravil Tugushev filed appeal against the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Novorossiysk. He pointed out that the decision was made in violation of procedural norms, since the court refused to cooperate with public and religious associations and other organizations. Tugushev sent a petition to the court to bring Dukhovny Administration of Muslims of the European part of Russia as an interested parties when considering an appeal in a court of second instance. By According to Tugushev, " the above decision creates a precedent and puts the essence of the question of the prohibition in the future of other translations of the Koran, as well as the prohibition of the Koran in Arabic, and as a result of the ban on Islam in the territory of the Russian Federation, since the Quran is the basis of the religion of Islam ."

Other state actions

In early September, it became known about the warning on the inadmissibility of violating the law, which was announced to a resident Kazan prosecutor's office of the Soviet district of the city. The reason for this was image of the Nazi swastikas, skulls, buildings with the inscription "FASHINGTON worthy successors of the cause III Reich". Although the law does prohibit any demonstration Nazi symbols, however, we oppose such a provision, which leads to absurd incidents, and we believe that in each case one should take into account the context of the display of Nazi symbols. In this case, the image is intended to draw a parallel between contemporary US policy and III Reich, that is, obviously, is not aimed at promoting Nazism.

On the same days, the prosecutor's office of the Leninsky district of Grozny reported on the warning announced to the director of the madrasah "Al-Koran" Khamzat Khozhbakhmadov due to the lack of a federal list of extremist materials. It does not follow from the report of the prosecutor's office that when checking the activities of "Al-Koran" some forbidden literature was found (most likely, it was not). Madrasah, which is a non-state educational institution of secondary professional religious education, is not required to have Federal list of extremist materials. In our opinion, a warning declared illegal.

At the beginning of the month, Roskomnadzor issued a warning on the inadmissibility of violating the law on countering extremist activities of the editorial office and the founder of the Petrozavodsk television company "Sampo" for disseminating information about the introduction in the news release on the territory of the Republic of Karelia in the national currency, in which the department saw a danger to the integrity of the Russian Federation. It's about a joke plot with the participation of activists of the Free Karelia movement, printed Karelian "runes" for tourists and for a limited use at art events. The action to issue "money" was timed to coincide with the next anniversary of the Declaration of State Sovereignty Karelia, published by the Parliament of the Republic on August 9, 1990. Then Parliament announced his intention to build a legal, democratic, sovereign state in within the RSFSR and the USSR. The Free Karelia movement is not separatist, and regionalist, that is, advocates "for civil self-government and cultural identity of the region" And does not engage in illegal activities. From our point of view, in this in the event of Roskomnadzor's concern about a possible threat to the integrity of Russia groundless.

The prosecutor's office of Tatarstan announced in early September warning against extremist activities Head of the Volga Center for Regional and Ethno-Religious Studies Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Rais Suleimanov. In one of Suleymanov's publications dealt with the closure of the Al-Ikhlas mosque in Kazan and the growing number of radical Islamists in the republic. The prosecutor's office saw in the text "operating knowingly unreliable information, the lack of substantiation of the proposed assumptions about the development of Wahhabism in the republic by any facts or attaching exaggerated importance to individual facts of manifestations of extremism in deliberate silence about the actions of the law enforcement system to suppress them" , and besides, she pointed out that Suleimanov opposes the inhabitants of Tatarstan "to each other on national and religious grounds, causes hatred towards representatives of one or another nationality or confession " . In this case, we agree with the point of view of the prosecutor's office and believe that the warning was is quite appropriate, since a number of Suleimanov's theses are really capable of incite hatred towards migrants and representatives of "non-traditional" religious movements, and such analytics creates the danger of unjustified application of anti-extremist measures.