Unlawful anti-extremism in April 2015

We publish an overview of the main and most significant events in the field of misuse of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in April 2015.

Rulemaking

At the end of April, the Federation Council approved bill, according to which Art. 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (abuse of freedom mass media) will be supplemented by part five, introducing for legal entities fines for "production and release of mass media products, containing public calls for terrorist activities and (or) materials publicly justifying terrorism, and (or) other materials, calling for the implementation of extremist activities or substantiating or justifying the need to carry out such activities." May 2 law was signed by the president. The amount of fines is provided from 100 thousand to 1 million rubles with confiscation of the subject of an administrative offense. Exceptions are provided for the offenses of Art. 20.3 and 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses RF, for which responsibility has already been established. Thus, an administrative an alternative to a whole series of "propaganda" articles of the Criminal Code, which could would even welcome, however, the procedure for conviction under the Code of Administrative Offenses is much simpler than under the Criminal Code, so there is reason to fear serious abuse.

At the end of April it became It is known that as a result of public discussion of the draft departmental order of Roskomnadzor was excluded from the text paragraph on the implementation of " monitoring sites or pages of sites on the network "Internet" in order to identify information resources on the network "Internet", which contains information identical to the information contained in the demand of the Prosecutor General or his deputies . This step of the department was influenced by the negative reviews of experts who pointed to the uncertainty of the concept of "identical information" and, most importantly, the fact that this provision is in conflict with federal law, to whom the right to send a request to block sites " with information, containing calls for mass riots, the implementation of extremist activities, participation in mass (public) events held with violation of the established order , "has only the General prosecutor's office. Roskomnadzor sought for itself the right to independently block copies of information subject to blocking by order of the Prosecutor General's Office. Recall that we oppose the "Lugovoy law" itself, authorized the blocking of sites out of court.

Criminal the pursuit

In April it became known about the verdict handed down by the Moscow District Military Court to a resident Staraya Russa to Anton Izokaitis. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in a penal colony according to part 1 of Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public justification terrorism), Part 1 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for the implementation extremist activity), Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (actions aimed at humiliation of the dignity of a person or a group of persons on the grounds of nationality). Izokaitis paid for the scandal at the police station, where he was taken for petty hooliganism in the New Year (January 1, 2015). According to the investigation, " expressing a negative attitude towards the Russians, wishing to justify the implementation terrorist activities against them ... in the presence of several people expressed support and positive assessment of the actions taken in December 2013 year in Volgograd, connected with the explosions of the railway station and trolleybus containing signs of a terrorist act. In addition, wanting incite hatred and enmity towards the Russians, he expressed in a rude obscene form phrases about the need to use violence against them, containing insulting and degrading characteristics "We consider the verdict, handed down to Izokaitis, unlawful. Isokaitis spoke within police station and addressed to a small group, i.e. his actions cannot be be considered public. In addition, the date and circumstances of the detention suggest suspicions that all these statements cannot be qualified as deliberate acts described in the relevant articles of the Criminal Code.

In early April, the Meshchansky interdistrict the investigative department of the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR, based on the materials of the inspection of the Moscow prosecutor's office, initiated criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred and enmity, as well as humiliation of the dignity of a group of persons on the grounds of belonging to veterans of the Great Patriotic War). The case was initiated on the fact of sale in a shopping center "Central Children's Store on Lubyanka" (TsDM) busts and figurines soldiers and officers of Nazi Germany. On the same day, interrogations and searches took place in apartments and offices of sellers of the Tekhnika molody company, which owns figurine shop. From this store and from other outlets figurines of soldiers and military equipment with Nazi symbols were seized. Except In addition, a warning about the inadmissibility of violation was mistakenly entered legislation on countering extremism to the director of OAO Detsky world", a company that has nothing to do with the CDM. As it turned out, the figurines and busts, which became the reason for initiating a criminal case, were among the collectible and were not intended for children's games. From our point of view, initiation of a criminal case under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code is unlawful, because in fact selling models there are no signs of a crime under this articles. In such a situation, one would expect administrative persecution under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda and public demonstration of Nazi attributes or symbols), the use of which, however, is also doubtful, since modelers, demonstrating prohibited symbols, as a rule, do not promote Nazi ideas. We believe that sellers should have removed images of Nazi soldiers and officers from an open window and limit text directory.

In mid-April, we learned that proceedings were terminated in a case initiated under Art. 282 CC against Izhevsk resident Shamil Gareev. Gareev was charged with posting on his website falundafa.udm.ru in 2012 of the book "Falun Dafa". The experts considered that the content of the book is identical to that of Li Hongzhi's forbidden book "Zhuan Falun" and stated that it promotes the superiority of ideas and views of Li Hongzhi over others and "negative and hostile statements about Orthodox Christianity " . In addition, the investigation brought two witnesses who stated that the book hurt their religious feelings. This is the first criminal case we know of against a Falun Gong practitioner. Recall that the Russian authorities groundlessly repair various obstacles spreading the Chinese spiritual practice Falun Gong; as extremist banned several Falun Gong materials, including the book of its founder, Zhuan Falun. Russian courts considered that the book promotes the superiority of adherents of the ideology of Falun Gong over other people. From our point of view, the book does not contain any signs extremism. As for the propaganda of the truth of one's own beliefs, it does not may be regarded as incitement to hatred.

Moscow District Military Court at an offsite meeting in Ufa at the beginning of the month sentenced four members of the "Hizb ut-Tahrir" - Evgeny Kulagin, Rasim Sataev, Alexei Khamadeev and Aidar Garifyanov. They were found guilty under Part 1 of Art. 30 st. 278 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempt to seize power by force) and Part 1 of Art. 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (assistance to terrorist activities). All they were detained in early November 2012 in Ufa as part of the investigation of a criminal case under part 1. Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of the activities of an extremist organizations). The court acknowledged that in In 2011-2012, all four "conversed with the parishioners of mosques, bowing them to participate in a terrorist organization" , "studied with them extremist literature and video materials based on manipulation techniques, and also held meetings and conferences promoting intolerance towards others religions" . Kulagin was sentenced to 7 years in prison, Sataev - to 6.5 years, Khamadeev and Garifyanov - by 6 years in a penal colony of strict mode. They were also sentenced to a subsequent restriction of freedom for 1 year. Recall that we consider it unlawful to accuse the followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir" in terrorist crimes and attempted coup only on the basis of party activities (holding meetings, reading literature, etc.).

Administrative persecution

According to Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution extremist materials or their possession for the purpose of distribution) in April, to our knowledge, five people were wrongfully prosecuted and one legal entity. Among them are three Jehovah's Witnesses (two residents and a community Cherkessk (Perm Territory) and a resident of Tikhoretsk (Krasnodar Territory)), fined for distributing banned pamphlets. Inhabitant of Kungur (Perm region) received five days of administrative arrest for having placed in social media link to the groundlessly banned film "The Miracles of the Quran". Imam mosque in Nizhny Lomov (Penza region) was fined for the mosque was found brochure "Constellation of the Righteous Caliphs" by Osman Nuri Topbasha, whose ban was overturned .

According to Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for demonstrating Nazi symbolism, which did not have an ideological background, two people were fined. A blogger from Omsk was prosecuted for posting on a social network photographs of the inscriptions on the fences that he collects: on two of them there was a swastika. Sergei Vilkov, journalist and anti-fascist from Saratov, was fined for a social media post dating back to 2011. Vilkov then reacted to the approval of the "Russian March" by the local authorities, by posting on his page a collage with United Russia symbols and swastika.

For the imperfection of content filters, which in principle cannot weed out all prohibited content, according to Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation of the law Russian Federation on the protection of children from information harmful to their health and (or) development) a cafe-bakery in the Penza region and two school directors from Neryungri (Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)).

Regarding the news agency "Crimean News" (QHA) in April, a protocol was drawn up on administrative offense for hours. 2 Article. 13.15 Administrative Code (distribution information about an extremist organization without mentioning its ban). Wherein information about such organizations was presented on the agency's website even before annexation of Crimea. In addition, in 2015 the Crimean news" was denied registration in the Russian Federation and from April 1 moved the office to Kyiv.

Prohibition and blocking of materials for extremism, and issuing warnings

Here we note only the most notable cases.

At the end of March, the Karelian website of the organization "Stop the occupation of Karjala" and the organization's social media page were added to Federal List of Extremist Materials (p. 2675) and blocked. The Petrozavodsk city court issued a corresponding decision in January 2015 based on the results of linguistic expertise, which established that site materials "contain information aimed at exciting hatred and enmity on a national basis". From our point of view, the court decision is not based on real facts: the site contains only calls for secession referendum.

At the end of April at The Federal List of Extremist Materials has been added with an item reflecting issued in January 2015 by the Kurgan City Court on the recognition extremist "images of the leader of the Ukrainian radical nationalist organization "Right Sector" D. Yarosh with his saying: "When I enter Moscow, I will personally cut down all the horizontal bars so that Rus' has never risen from its knees!", posted on one of the pages social network "VKontakte" " . In the event that the list item adequately conveys the content of the prohibited material, Kurgan City Court issued an unlawful decision: the ban on the Right Sector organization was not extends to publishing images of his chapter, a vague statement, the accompanying image does not fall under the definition of extremism.

In the end of April The Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court recognized three materials as extremist articles by Kamchatka journalist Igor Kravchuk. The court agreed with the opinion Prosecutor's Office of the Kamchatka Territory that the materials contain " statements, containing calls for violence against citizens, for inciting social discord, associated with violence or incitement to violence, may be motivating impact on the consciousness, will and behavior of readers ". Articles really written extremely sharply, in a style, in character rather for social networks than for the media (including using profanity vocabulary), from the standpoint of rejection of the current government, including President Putin ("Kremlin crooks", etc.). However, we did not find in them calls for violence and inciting social discord. Recognizing them as extremist seems to us unreasonable.

Prosecutor's Office of the Karasunsky District of Krasnodar in early April, contributed to the organizer of the concert Noize MC, scheduled for 10 April 2015, non-compliance warning legislation on countering extremist activity. As grounds for issuing a warning, the prosecutor's office indicated the following: " It has been established that that in August 2014 the group "Noize MC" performed at the festival Kubana, where the soloist of the group Ivan Alekseev expressed disagreement with the position Russian Federation in relation to the events taking place in Ukraine ". As a result, the Noize MC live concert in Krasnodar was canceled and was online broadcasts from Moscow. In our opinion, the warning was announced unlawful, since disagreement with the position of the Russian Federation is not sign of extremist activity.