Unlawful anti-extremism in December 2014

We publish review of the main and most significant developments in the field of illegal enforcement of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in December 2014.

Rulemaking

The December legislative initiatives were aimed at expansion and deepening of the fight against extremism and terrorism. Obviously, legislators do not see the need to deal with the causes of these phenomena and consider it is possible to eliminate them only with the help of intimidation. This practice is hardly will justify itself, but the number of abuses will increase significantly law enforcement agencies and the severity of their consequences.

The palm in this fight, of course, belongs to the deputies Chechen parliament, who are preparing to submit a draft law to the State Duma , according to which to punish crimes against public safety (to which, by the way, includes not only terrorism, but also, say, vandalism or hooliganism) should be carried out to the fullest extent without regard to the existing rules of law - up to the death penalty, and not only criminals, but also their relatives. Thus, lawmakers from Chechnya are proposing a more radical option already in the State Duma initiative persecution of relatives of terrorists.

State Meanwhile, the Duma passed the bill in the second and third readings , prohibiting persons who were members of the leadership of organizations recognized terrorist or extremist, to establish new associations during ten years.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications took up "propaganda of terrorism and extremism" and drafted a bill on the introduction of administrative responsibility for the media for the " production and release of products <...> containing public calls for the implementation of a terrorist activities and/or materials publicly justifying terrorism, and/or other materials calling for the implementation of extremist activities or justifying or justifying the need for such activities ." The amount of fines is provided from 100 thousand to 1 million rubles. confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense. At the same time, no it is stipulated how this administrative responsibility correlates with criminal liability relevant articles of the Criminal Code. It is also proposed to increase the fines for Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution of extremist materials) for legal entities, it should be from 100 thousand to 1 million rubles.

Parliament North Ossetia submitted a bill to the State Duma with a proposal to extend the law on extrajudicial blocking of information on the network ("Lugovoy's law") to hate materials, but not yet recognized by the court as extremist. Note that the question of what information arouses hatred, is dangerous and deserves to be removed from network, and which is not, is very complex and certainly requires judicial review. proceedings, since such materials can be considered under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code.

Criminal the pursuit

Against eco-activist Valery Brinikh, chairman of the Adyghe Republican organization of the All-Russian Society for the Conservation of Nature, in the middle of the month it was a criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code for publication on the website "For Krasnodar" article "Silence of the Lambs" on environmental pollution environment pig-breeding complex CJSC "Kyevo-Zhuraki APK". Maybe, the suspect in this criminal case is the administrator of the site "For Krasnodar" Vitaly Isaenko. In the Maykop city court is considered statement of the prosecutor's office of the Republic of Adygea on the recognition of the article as extremist. The prosecutor's office considered that the author of the article "incites ethnic hatred and sows enmity" and also "calls for the implementation of extremist activity". However, signs of inciting discord and calls for extremist activity was not found in the article. Obviously, in this case, local the authorities used Brynich's article as a pretext to put pressure on activist, because the owner of the pig-breeding complex is a member of the Council Federation Vyacheslav Derev. Recently, the authorities of the south of Russia have been especially active persecute environmental activists, including bringing criminal charges against them.

The Smolensk Regional Court reconsidered the case of Deputy Smolensky city ​​council of Andrey Ershov, who insulted former juvenile prisoners of the Nazi camps and found guilty on Part 1 Art. 282 of the Criminal Code in humiliation of dignity on the basis of belonging to certain social group. This time, the regional court upheld the verdict. of the Smolensk City Court in relation to Ershov, but canceled the statute of limitations penalty. At the same time, according to the decision of the city court, Ershov will have to pay 10 thousand rubles each in favor of two plaintiffs on civil case against them for causing them moral damage. The payment of compensation in this case is more than appropriate, although the amount is not significant. In general, we believe that in such cases, civil proceedings are appropriate.

Pervouralsk City Court of the Sverdlovsk Region case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code in relation to Elvira Sultanakhmetova, who is accused inciting religious discord. According to the prosecution, Sultanakhmetova, answering to the online survey "Can a Muslim celebrate the New Year?", Referring to the Koran, she spoke out against the celebration. At the same time, she called Muslims not only not to celebrate the New Year, but also not to wear St. George ribbons and don't dye Easter eggs like the " vile pagans " do. Happy New Year!" Sultanakhmetova compared with murder or adultery, and the round dance around the New Year tree was also considered the legacy of a certain bloody pagan ritual. In our opinion, the persecution of Sultanakhmetova illegally. The girl did not write anything that contradicted numerous clarification of the issue of the admissibility of this holiday for adherents of Islam, which are easy to find on Muslim websites, and did nothing at all that complies with Art. 282 of the Criminal Code.

In Perm, the world the court sentenced six followers of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi to CC. 1 and 2 tbsp. 282.2 of the Criminal Code for the continuation of the activities of a religious association "Nurcular" to fines ranging from 30 to 100 thousand rubles. In Rostov-on-Don, the Oktyabrsky District Court sentenced Gadzhibek Ismailov, who studied the books of Nursi together with several acquaintances, a fine of 130 thousand rubles for hours. 1 Article. 282.2. According to the FSB, Ismailov was seized about a thousand copies of Nursi's works. We believe unlawful prohibition of the works of Nursi, which do not contain any extreme statements, as well as the Nurcular organization, which in Russia is not existed, and oppose the persecution of individual believers who study Nursi books.

IN Kazan to significant terms of imprisonment (from 3.5 to 6.5 years) were three participants in a picket against discrimination against Muslims and a motor rally with Hizb ut-Tahrir flags were sentenced. They were found guilty on cc. 1 and 2 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code continued activities of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir party, as well as under par. "in" part 2 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred as part of an organized groups). From our point of view, the verdict is unlawful in the part relating to Art. 282 of the Criminal Code: displaying the flag with the shahada does not in itself degrade anyone's dignity and does not incite hatred towards anyone. The same applies to protests against persecution of Muslims. In addition, one of the defendants in the case was found guilty in a knowingly false denunciation of a crime under Part. 1 Article. 306 of the Criminal Code. If the court considered as such an open appeal to President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, this is a clear abuse.

The Rostov Regional Court overturned the decision of the Taganrog City Court on "case of 16" Jehovah's Witnesses from Taganrog and sent the case to a new consideration. The decision of the court of first instance was disputed by both parties: Witnesses Jehovahs found guilty under chch. 1 and 2 Art. 282.2 CC in continuation of activities liquidated Taganrog community, demanded full justification, and The prosecutor's office filed a complaint with a higher authority demanding to cancel the sentence is too lenient. The text of the decision of the regional court is not yet known to us, accordingly, it is not clear whose complaint is upheld. Note that the seven defendants were given suspended sentences and/or fines, nine people were acquitted. We regard the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as discrimination based on religious sign.

Administrative persecution

In December, we became aware of five administrative cases unlawfully initiated under Art. 20.29 Administrative Code for distributing prohibited materials or possessing them for the purpose of distribution. For the popular video of Alexei Navalny's supporters "Let's Remind the Crooks and Thieves of their Manifesto-2002" Lilia, a well-known public activist in Kazan, was brought to justice Zheltukhin; in Cheboksary, a local blogger Sergey was fined a thousand rubles Petrov for the mere mention of an extremist slogan in an article; in Novgorod a fine threatens a native of Morocco who gave on his page on a social network "VKontakte" link to the book by Elmira Kuliev "On the way to Koran"; Satsita Chukuyeva, a businesswoman from Grozny, was fined for a thousand rubles for the fact that a collection of prayers was found in her store "Fortress of the Muslim"; in Biysk (Altai Territory) shop owner paid twice as much for the sale of Jehovah's Witnesses' pamphlet "Knowledge, leading to eternal life."

In the past month, we have noted two cases of wrongful harassment under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda or demonstration of extremist symbols). Public activist from Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region Vladislav Nikitenko was was held liable for publishing demotivators containing Nazi symbols, but aimed not at propaganda of Nazism, but at ridiculing Ukraine's accusations of fascism. Resident of Murmansk Dmitry Gashuta posted on the network the symbols of the "Right Sector", but even before the ban on this organizations; he was brought to justice without first pointing out the the need to remove a prohibited image, and sentenced to two days administrative arrest.

In Kosh-Agach region The Altai Republic initiated an administrative case under Part 1 of Art. 5.35 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (non-performance or improper performance parents or other legal representatives of minor duties content, education, training, protection of rights and interests minors) in relation to parents a child studying in a Kyrgyz madrasah, where, according to the prosecutor's office, teaching conducted from the standpoint of the tablighi religious movement banned in Russia Jamaat". Parents did not attempt to stop studying your child in this school. Recall that we consider it illegal to ban the Tablighi Jamaat movement, because its members do not preach violence and there is no evidence that they are involved in violent practices.

Prohibition of organizations and materials for extremism and other state and public action

The Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory in mid-December filed a claim with the regional court for recognition as extremist and liquidation local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Abinsk. Prosecutor's office bases the claim on the fact that a certain member of the Abinsk community of Jehovah's Witnesses was brought to administrative responsibility for distribution of prohibited brochures, the organization was issued a warning about the inadmissibility extremist activities, but members of the organization continued to spread religious literature. This is already the third attempt known to us to ban the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist: previously liquidated the Taganrog community mentioned above, and the attempts of the prosecutor's office to liquidate community in Gorno-Altaisk were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized extremist Jehovah's Witnesses website jw.org. In addition, posted on the site were prohibited brochures What Does the Bible Really Teach?, Draw Close to Jehovah" and "Come and follow me". At the same time, the Managerial the center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia was not informed of the examination cases to ban the site and brochures in the Supreme Court. Earlier, in May 2014, Tverskaya the regional court again refused to approve the decision of the Central District Court of Tver to ban the site and brochures. Then the prosecutor's office of Tver The district appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted the claim.

Meanwhile, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Belgorod considers the claim of the prosecutor's office on the recognition of extremist materials of three brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses: "Son 'wants to reveal' father", "Safe whether your food" and "was life created".

In the second half of December, Roskomnadzor, by order of the Prosecutor General's Office blocked dozens of websites and individual pages containing information about planned action in support of Alexei and Oleg Navalny in connection with the them a verdict in the Yves Rocher case. Recall, according to " law Lugovoy ", the Prosecutor General's Office, having received information about the existence of a network page containing calls for riots, extremist activities and simply " participation in public mass events, conducted in violation of the established procedure , "may apply to Roskomnadzor and oblige it to urgently demand the removal of this information or block it. From our point of view, the very position "Lugovoy's law" on blocking information about unauthorized events, since the fact that an event is not permitted does not grounds for banning posts about him. This is a clear violation. the right to freedom of speech. Moreover, the requirement to block messages is unlawful. on activities for which no decision has been taken by the authorities. At the request of the Russian authorities, the social network Facebook also closed for Russian users access to the group with the announcement of the meeting in support of Navalny, but did not block new similar pages.