Article 212.1 - shooting from a gun at sparrows

Probably about 212.1, the articles added to the Criminal Code in the summer of 2014, only the lazy did not speak out. In particular, the ATS-Info described in detail the essence of this innovation and talked about what is in its basis. Let me remind you that the article provides for criminal liability for violation on the street action if at the time of detention the potential suspect has three court decisions over the past six months for similar violations, but within the framework of the Administrative Code.

Many words have already been said that a criminal prosecution should not be built on the basis of administrative violations. Such an automatic generation of a criminal case deprives the accused of the possibility of a full -fledged defense, because he actually cannot challenge his first three episodes. Were court decisions? Were. So, there is nothing to object. And it doesn’t matter that these fines or arrests were issued within the framework of a completely non -criminal process, often even without a lawyer. In addition, in fact, article 212.1, if the defendant is not justified (which, as you know, is extremely rare in Russia), implies a second punishment for the first three, “administrative” violations.

A lot is said about the disproportion of punishment. Indeed, five years of prison, the maximum term of 212.1, can be obtained by standing a single picket several times closer to another picketer than it should be according to the law. The same five years can be a criminal punishment, for example, for theft of the federal treasury or, in the language of the Criminal Code, fraud on an especially large scale. The practice is cooler - Ildar Dadin, the first convicted of 212.1, is already sitting in the pre -trial detention center more than those 34 days that the official of the Oboronservice Evgeny Vasilieva allegedly spent in a general regime colony.

But both of the above arguments, despite its indisputable justice, are just a game of someone else's field, arguments in someone else's discourse. With article 212.1, everything is much simpler. This article, as well as the article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses associated with it (“Violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picket”), is directly conflicting with the 31st article of the Russian Constitution, which means, according to the same Constitution, there is no right to exist. There is no point in talking about the case so far the only convicted Ildar Dadina is completely sense - all the “episodes” on which the case is built are falsified. Even the illegal article 20.2 does not provide for liability for single pickets, which are associated with two of the three “administrative” episodes that formed the basis of the criminal case. It is unlikely that we can seriously refer to the protocol, which states that Dadin participated in the action in the amount of “approximately two people”. In the third case, Ildar was detained on the approach to the “place of crime” - Manezhnaya Square, where oppositionists traditionally conduct single pickets. That is, the administrative offenses themselves were not in principle. It is also pointless to talk about the disproportion of punishment, when it comes to absolutely innocent, even within the framework of the Code of Administrative Offenses, even relatively “dubious” 20.2, man. It’s the same as trying to evaluate how many times less than one.

A couple of words about Dadin himself. Ildar is not a typical character for the Moscow “white -opened” opposition, although it was protested precisely at the end of 2011. A guard by profession, he came to various promotions often simply with the aim of protecting people from lawlessness of the police and attacks of titles . Moreover, quickly enough the main tool for this protection was the excellent knowledge of the laws necessary for the appeal to the police, that the latter, like this, alas, is often very annoyed. Sometimes this is precisely what caused the detentions. Although the main reason that it was Dadin that became the first prisoner under Article 212.1, probably the other was a pointer from the EE center, which describes the plot of administrative protocols to the police departments and as a whole “leading” street activists; Ildar, with his activity and unbending, certainly earned such an honor as no one else.

On January 21, friends and supporters of Ildar Dadin launched the campaign “The right not to be silent” with a request to remove an openly repressive article 212.1 from the Criminal Code and cancel the existing persecution on it. On January 23, as part of the campaign in Moscow, a rally will be held in defense of political prisoners, and on February 7, the international action “Free World for Free Dadin” will be planned, in which activists in a number of large cities in Europe and North America are about to take part. The campaign is aimed at maximizing the dissemination of information about absurd persecution and those who conduct them - from legislators to judges.

I want to emphasize that, in my opinion, this criminal article does not make sense for the authorities and is like shooting from a gun at sparrows: in the Criminal Code and so enough articles that are successfully used to combat political competitors, and several activists that can be applied 2122.1 are unlikely to represent. Hence the conclusion: Dadin became a victim of an attempt to curry up - first several deputies, and then the participants in the persecution directly against him.

And a little about the technical side of the question. OVD-Info is an information partner of the campaign "The right not to be silent." In fact, this means that the Stop212Prim.org campaign is transmitted to the news and large materials of the OTS-Info related to Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code. Thus, the authors of the initiative acquire the necessary media context and unleashed their hands for other texts and actions. OVD-Info is ready similarly to cooperate with other projects aimed at combating the manifestations of politicalPressing in Russia. In the meantime, you can declare the support of the campaign “The right not to be silent” if you represent an organization or community, as well as in personal quality to sign a petition on Change.org.