Ruslan Sokolovsky appealed the arrest to the ECHR

A blogger from Yekaterinburg believes that he was placed in a pre-trial detention center to punish him for publicizing the connection between the author of the examination of the case and the local Center for Pretrial Examination.

On February 19, 2017, blogger from Yekaterinburg Ruslan Sokolovsky, accused of inciting hatred (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code) and insulting the feelings of believers in places of worship (Part 2 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code), appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR ) with a complaint about his arrest. According to Damir Gainutdinov, who represents Sokolovsky in Strasbourg, the complaint states that keeping the blogger in custody is an inadequate measure in relation to the actions he committed. From the point of view of the defense, the blogger was taken under arrest as punishment for his lawyer’s disclosure of the facts of cooperation between expert Yulia Tagiltseva, who prepared the conclusion on the case, with the Center for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region, which provided operational support for the investigation. Thus, the arrest, like the criminal prosecution itself, is stated in the complaint, was a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression.

Sokolovsky was arrested on September 3, 2016, transferred to house arrest on September 8, and again sent to pre-trial detention on October 28. On January 19, the arrest was extended until February 22, 2017; on January 27, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court confirmed this decision. On February 13, 2017, the Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg granted the investigator’s request and again placed the blogger under house arrest. The arrest period is set until March 1. On February 15, 2017, Sokolovsky’s case was brought to court.

Let us recall that the investigation believes that the blogger is guilty of “committing 9 episodes of a crime under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity), 7 episodes of Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion) , as well as one episode of Article 138.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal trafficking of special technical means intended for secretly obtaining information)." Charges of inciting hatred and insulting the feelings of believers were brought against Sokolovsky for publishing videos replete with provocative statements, primarily of an atheistic nature, including a story about catching Pokemon in the Yekaterinburg Cathedral of the Intercession on the Blood. We believe that the criminal prosecution of the blogger is unlawful: he can only be charged with humiliation of dignity on religious grounds, however, humiliation of dignity, from our point of view, should be taken out of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and transferred to the Code of Administrative Offenses, since it does not pose a serious danger to society. We write more about the charges brought against Sokolovsky here .

Sources

• Anastasia Kornya. Ekaterinburg Pokemon catcher appealed his arrest to the ECHR // Vedomosti. 2017. February 19.