The prosecution of Olga Li under Art. 282 CC

The investigation found no signs of inciting hatred in the statements of the Kursk deputy.

On October 4, 2016, Sergey Eshtokin, an investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Kursk Region, stopped the persecution of the deputy of the regional Duma and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "People's Journalist" Olga Li under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity). This was reported by the international human rights group "Agora" with reference to lawyer Roman Lyzlov.

The case against Lee was initiated on the fact of the publication in open mode on her page on the social network "VKontakte" of the text of the appeal to the president, and on other pages on the Internet - video files with recordings of her speeches. A linguistic study commissioned by the prosecutor's office showed that Li's text and speeches contained " lexicon of statements aimed at humiliating the dignity of a group of persons [united] on the basis of belonging to a social group of representatives of the authorities, in particular law enforcement officers and the judiciary" .

The investigation conducted a series of examinations that refuted the conclusions of the initial study. According to the expert's conclusion, the video "Servants of the Devil: whom United Russia is dragging into the State Duma" contains only accusations of representatives of the municipal authorities of " negative actions ", and there are no signs of incitement of hostility, calls for violence and incitement to discriminatory actions. Similarly, in In the text of the appeal to Putin, the expert found only accusations of the prosecutor of the Kursk region of " negative actions ". In the video "Opposition will follow for the president's inaction", the expert found Putin's accusation of inaction and support for the illegal actions of prosecutors and the threat of violence ("opposition"), but noted In the videos "About Russia, Corruption, Ukraine... Olga Li" and "Olga Li I'm Alone in the Field of Warriors: A Speech Against Putin in Russia - Vikna-novini - 07.03.2016" the expert did not find not only threats, but also accusations against any officials.

Based on these conclusions of the expert, the investigator decided to stop the persecution of Li under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code on the grounds that there is no corpus delicti in her actions. Investigation under Part 1 of Art. 298.1 of the Criminal Code (defamation) against Lee continues.

We welcome the investigator's decision: Li's speeches contain harsh criticism of the foreign and domestic policies of the authorities and accusations of certain representatives in the Kursk region of embezzlement and other offenses, but they do not contain any dangerous appeals. In addition, we generally advocate the exclusion from Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the unclear concept of "social group", which is very often interpreted precisely as a group of government officials or law enforcement agencies, although anti-extremist legislation in essence should be aimed at protecting vulnerable groups, and not officials who are protected by other laws.

On June 26, 2017, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk found Olga Li guilty in a libel case (Li accused the judge of the same court, Lyudmila Shurina, of making an unjust decision) and sentenced her to a fine of 90,000 rubles. On September 8, 2017, the Kursk Regional Court approved this decision, and it entered into force.

Sources

• Reports of the international human rights group "Agora".