Anonymity as a basis for seizures

Aleksey Navalny appealed to the Constitutional Court with a complaint about the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure governing the seizure of items and documents during a search.

December 5, 2013 it became known that Alexei Navalny and head of the Kirov branch of the "People's Alliance" Vitaly Bramm filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court against the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, allowing law enforcement agencies to seize items and documents during verification reports of a crime, even if the report was anonymous. From the point view of Navalny and Bramm, the practice of applying art. Code of Criminal Procedure 144 (order consideration of a report of a crime) and 176 (grounds for proceedings inspection), establishing the procedure for considering reports of a crime and grounds for the inspection, restricts the constitutional right to own property.

Recall that in May 2013, employees of the Kirov Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a search in a local support headquarters of Alexei Navalny under the pretext of checking "for extremism", the reason for which was an anonymous call. According to Bramm, among other printed materials, the police then seized 90,000 leaflets from the headquarters and still did not return them. According to investigators, they were sent for examination at the Ministry of the Interior. An attempt by staff members to appeal against the actions of law enforcement officers in Pervomaisky district court of Kirov was unsuccessful: the court pointed out that the investigator is obliged to accept and verify the communication of any committed or impending crime. In their statement to the Constitutional Court, Navalny and Bramm indicated that the practice of conducting searches on an anonymous call, which is not a statement to police, opens up wide opportunities for abuse, as it allows on a formal occasion to examine and seize the property of citizens, taking no responsibility for it.

We also recall that, as we have repeatedly emphasized, to check texts on if they contain signs of extremism, one or more copies of printed materials, mass seizure is possible only when materials were recognized by the court as extremist.

On December 25, 2013, Navalny and Bramm filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court.

Sources

• Anastasia Kornia. The leaflets reached the court // Vedomosti. 2013. December 5.
• Navalny's complaint about one of the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure was submitted to the Constitutional Court // ITAR-TASS. 2013. December 25.