Blogger Sokolovsky arrested again

The Yekaterinburg blogger, accused under articles 148 and 282 of the Criminal Code, violated the conditions of house arrest.

On October 28, 2016, the Kirovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg arrested until January 23, 2017 the accused under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred) and part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the feelings of believers in places of worship) by blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky. The reason for the detention was Sokolovsky's violation of the conditions of house arrest: the court found that he let his girlfriend into the apartment, who has the status of a witness in the case, and also used the Internet. On October 31, the defense appealed the arrest.

Sokolovsky was arrested on September 3, 2016, and on September 8 he was placed under house arrest. The reason for his persecution was the publication of three videos. In one of them, the blogger plays the Pokemon Go game on his smartphone in a Yekaterinburg church, in another he comments on this event, and in the third he criticizes the article "If you want to get married, you should not just sigh about it, but prepare" published on the website of the Patriarchy.

From our point of view, the publication of a video about playing Pokemon Go in a temple does not fall under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, since this video does not contain any aggressive appeals. In addition, we believe that the application of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code: none of the visitors to the temple noticed the actions of the blogger and, moreover, did not suffer from them, no damage was caused to objects of worship, and the video did not encroach on sacred space in any way. As for the second and third videos, they are replete with foul language and derogatory characteristics of religion in general, Orthodoxy and the Orthodox, but also do not contain any dangerous appeals. We believe that humiliation of dignity should be removed from Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and transferred to the Code of Administrative Offenses, since it does not pose a serious danger to society.

On November 3, 2016, it became known that the Sverdlovsk Regional Court rejected Sokolovsky's appeal to change the preventive measure. The decision has entered into force, the international human rights group Agora reported, citing lawyer Alexei Bushmakov.

Sources

• Blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky sent to jail until January 23 // Mediazone. 2016. October 28.
• Lawyers for blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky appealed against his return to jail // Echo of Moscow-Yekaterinburg. 2016. October 31.
• Report of the international human rights group "Agora".