The Supreme Court of Tatarstan approved the sentence of Rafis Kashapov

The Supreme Court of Tatarstan dismissed Rafis Kashapov's appeal against the sentence handed down by the Naberezhnye Chelny City Court.

November 13, 2015 Supreme Court Tatarstan approved the verdict handed down by the Naberezhnye Chelny city court to the chairman of the Tatar public center to Rafis Kashapov under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity) and part 2 of Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code (public calls for action, aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation). Kashapov's punishment left unchanged: three years' imprisonment in a penal colony. Supreme Court of the Republic limited himself to canceling the additional punishment assigned to him - a two-year social media ban.

Recall that Kashapov was accused of publishing six articles in open access on his page on the VKontakte social network under his own name and on behalf of his brother Nafis Kashapov: "Crimea and Ukraine will be free from invaders!" , "Yesterday Hitler and Danzig, today Putin and Donetsk!", "Let's protect Ukraine and the entire Turkic world", "Where Russia is, there are tears and death", "The Turks need a rapid response center!", "I appeal to the citizens of the Turkic world".

On in our opinion, the sentence handed down to Kashapov is unlawful. We had the opportunity get acquainted with the indicated articles and did not find corpus delicti in them, provided for in Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code. Persecution for expressing one's own opinions and norms of international law is a violation of freedom of speech. We also We believe that in the materials for which Kashapov was convicted, there are no signs of inciting hatred on ethnic grounds. We did not find in them and calls for military action. With regard to criticism of the Russian authorities, according to the explanation of the Supreme Court regarding the practice application of anti-extremist legislation, it should not be considered as inciting hatred and prosecuted under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code.

The brothers Rafis and Nafis Kashapovs are prominent activists of the Tatar national movement. Nafis emigrated from Russia in 2005, one of his texts was recently blocked for Russian users by "Lugovoy's law". Rafis lived in Naberezhnye Chelny. In 2009, he was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code for publication in his blog several texts against forced Russification and Christianization, as well as one inflammatory text of Chechen armed separatists. All these materials were recognized as extremist. In May 2015 HRC "Memorial" recognized Rafis Kashapov as a political prisoner and demanded his immediate release.

Sources

• Court upholds sentence for Rafis Kashapov // Grani.Ru. November 13, 2015