Imams from Novosibirsk appealed to the ECHR

Ilkhom Merazhov and Kamil Odilov appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

On February 6, 2014, we became aware that on January 15, 2014 2013 Imams Ilkhom Merazhov and Kamil Odilov convicted in Novosibirsk in appealed against their sentence to the European Court of Human Rights.

In their complaints, Merazhov and Odilov pointed out that during the consideration cases brought against them under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of activities extremist organization) on charges of continuing activities banned religious association "Nurcular", were affected by their rights guaranteed by the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, namely, the following were violated:

• Art. 6 of the Convention on the Right to a Fair Trial proceedings;

• Art. 7 of the Convention, which guarantees that punishment appointed solely on the basis of the law: imams were convicted for participating in activities of a non-existent religious association, as well as due to the abundance non-legal terminology in the verdict;

• Art. 8 of the Convention on the right to respect for private and family life, and 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention (on the protection of property): the defendants were searched with the seizure of personal belongings, which were never were returned to them, and some of them were destroyed;

• Art. 9 of the Convention on Freedom of Thought, Conscience and religions: criminal prosecution, sentence and appeal court order in against Merazhov and Odilov were a restriction of these freedoms, and the court decision about the destruction of their books, commentaries on the Koran, containing quotations from sacred Muslim texts offended their religious feelings;

• Art. 10 Convention on Freedom of Expression opinions: Merazhov and Odilov were convicted for reading and discussing the books of Said Nursi, interpreted by the court as organizing the activities of "Nurcular";

• Art. 11 of the Convention on Freedom of Assembly and associations: the verdict of the court against the imams was a restriction of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly in private residences;

• Art. 13 of the Convention on the right to an effective remedy legal protection: Merazhov received a refusal from the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to apply for conducting a judicial verification of the fact of the existence of "Nurcular";

• Art. 14 of the Convention on the Prohibition of Discrimination: imams believe that they were persecuted under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, since are Muslim clerics.

Recall that the imams were found guilty of having organized the activities of the Nurcular religious association in Novosibirsk, knowing that it was banned as an extremist organization. The only reason for the persecution of Merazhov and Odilov was the fact that they studied the books of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi.

We do not consider it lawful either to ban Said Nursi's books or to ban the Nurcular association, which did not exist in Russia at all: there are individual believers who face unreasonable persecution for studying Nursi's books.

On March 12, 2014, Merazhov's complaint was registered by the ECtHR.

Sources

• Inc. inf.