Unlawful anti-extremism in February 2017

We publish an overview of the main and the most significant events in the field of misuse anti-extremist legislation in Russia in February 2017.

Rulemaking

February 22, 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin approved changes to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provide for strengthening responsibility of Internet providers for failure to fulfill their obligations to block pages based on information received from Roskomnadzor. New article 13.34 establishes liability for officials persons in the form of a fine in the amount of three to five thousand rubles, for individual entrepreneurs - from 10 to 30 thousand, for legal entities - from 50 to 100 thousand rubles. The adoption of this law is logically built into the previous measures taken by the authorities to countering the dissemination of prohibited materials online, and these measures are not times have been criticized .

On February 10, the State Duma approved the first reading of the draft amendments to the federal law "On the Mass Media" information", which, among other things, provides for the introduction of a ban on the establishment of the media for persons who are serving sentences or have unremoved or outstanding conviction for crimes against the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the state, as well as grave and especially grave crimes related in violation of media legislation and legislation on countering extremist activity. In addition, the amendments allow Roskomnadzor refuse permission to distribute foreign periodicals publication or revoke such permission if that publication does not comply with Article media abuse law and anti-extremist legislation in general. ABOUT why we oppose the adoption of this bill, we write here .

On February 14, LDPR faction deputy Sergei Ivanov introduced to the State Duma a draft law on the modification of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or hostility, as well as the humiliation of human dignity). Deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party earlier repeatedly proposed to completely abolish Art. 282 of the Criminal Code. The amendments proposed Ivanov, provide for the introduction of the existing parts of Art. 282 wording that limits it only to actions " that causing significant harm to the rights and legitimate interests of citizens or organizations or legally protected interests of society or the state, or the onset of other grave consequences ". At the same time, it is proposed supplement Art. 282 the third part, which would cover " propaganda exclusivity, superiority or inferiority "and actions, asserting the need to commit crimes " against a person or groups of persons on the basis of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, attitude to religion, as well as belonging to any social group , " committed publicly, in the media or via the Internet. At the same time, the sanction under the new part a softer one is provided - in the form of fines in the amount of 100 to 300 thousand rubles or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for the period from one year to two years, or in the form of deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years. Russian Government and the Supreme Court gave negative reviews of the bill. From our point view, anti-extremist legislation needs to be changed, and Ivanov's proposal to liberalize Art. 282 of the Criminal Code could be the basis for discussions about the gradual or partial decriminalization of acts now provided for in this article, although the proposed mechanism has its drawbacks.

Criminal prosecution

At the end of February, the Gorohovets District Court Vladimir region sentenced local resident Mikhail Pokalchuk to a year imprisonment conditionally with a probationary period of 1 year for hours. 1 Article. 282 of the Criminal Code. He was found guilty of inciting hatred against a social group "anti-fascists". The court found that on May 19, 2016, Pokalchuk was under pseudonym posted on the social network "VKontakte" a video file " containing signs of humiliation of human dignity and incitement of hatred, enmity (discord) on the grounds of belonging to the group "anti-fascists" . We We regard the verdict against Pokalchuk as unlawful, since anti-fascists do not belong to vulnerable groups of the population who need protection from anti-extremist legislation. In addition, we believe that the indefinite concept of a social group in general must be excluded from UK.

In early February, it became known that against a resident of the village of Kursavka Andropovsky district of the Stavropol Territory, a criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Art. 1 st. 282 of the Criminal Code. According to investigators, at night in July 2016 in an unnamed store in Nevinnomyssk, the suspect " spoke to an unfamiliar women expressions aimed at degrading national signs that undermine trust and respect for a nationality other than him, causing feelings of hostility towards her, and also called for hostile actions of one group of persons in relation to another, united on the basis of nationality . We do not know exactly what expressions the villager used, but we believe that his persecution under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code is unlawful. It is unlikely that he scolded the woman in the presence of a large crowd of people, respectively, statements are not should be considered public. In addition, it is not clear from the UK communication whether he called for suspected of violent acts, and as for humiliation, then we are in favor of his exclusion of this element of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code representing a serious public danger.

In early February, the Dzerzhinsky District Court Petersburg returned to the prosecutor of the Central District to eliminate numerous violations of the criminal case of Dina Garina, who is charged under Part 1 of Art. 282 UK (inciting hatred on the basis of origin and belonging to a social group). The case was initiated in connection with the speech of the far-right activist Garina at a rally in March 2015 year, during which she commented on the work of the staff of the Centers for countering extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Garina's speech contained insults and racist remarks attributing to employees of the "E" centers foreign ethnic (non-Russian, mixed) origin, as well as "genetic hatred" for the Russians. However, given that the calls for violence in this speech was not, it hardly represented a significant public danger, and the expediency criminal prosecution for inciting ethnic hatred seemed to us doubtful. Concerning inciting hatred towards employees of "E" centers as a social group, we consider such an accusation unjustified, since, from our point of view vision, Art. 282 of the Criminal Code should protect vulnerable groups of the population, not law enforcement bodies protected by other articles of the Criminal Code.

In mid-February, the Chechen prosecutor's office published a message that, based on the results of the procedural check, a criminal case was initiated against video blogger Ilya Davydov (Maddison), according to part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (humiliation of the dignity of a person or a group of persons for signs of attitude to religion), and a statement of recognition extremist video material with his speech is in production Zavodskoy District Court of Grozny. However, shortly after publication messages about the criminal case against Maddison were removed from the official Republican sites without explanation, so the fate of the case is unknown. According to the prosecutor's office, Maddison's footage showed actions and statements aimed at humiliating a person and a group of persons on the grounds of an attitude towards Islam and Christianity. This is an excerpt from Davydov's 2012 speech, which became widely known at the beginning of 2017. In Maddison's sketch using profanity talks about how he bought the Koran, went to the toilet of his read, and almost wiped himself with it, and at the end declares that in fact it was about the Bible. After the record became popular in January 2017, Davydov began to receive numerous insults and threats, after which he had to delete accounts in social networks and leave Russia, and the Russian Congress of the Peoples of the Caucasus began to seek the initiation of proceedings against him for offending the feelings of believers. We believe that the reasons for criminal there was no persecution of the video blogger. We talk more about this here .

At the beginning of the month, it became known about the excitement criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the feelings of believers) in relation to 21-year-old resident of Belgorod. In May 2016, the suspect posted on her page on the social network, photos in which she lit a cigarette from candles in an orthodox church. According to the investigation, it offended the feelings believers. We consider the criminal prosecution of the Belgorod woman unlawful. Although she and violated the accepted rules of conduct in the temple, her actions obviously did not attracted the attention of the believers present there and did no harm objects of worship, and her social network account is addressed to a clearly non-religious audience, and in any case, such photographs do not pose a significant danger to society.

In the middle of the month, the Industrial District Magistrate's Court Stavropol, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, ceased production on criminal case against Viktor Krasnov, accused under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code for comments in the group "Overheard Stavropol" in the social network "VKontakte". Being a convinced atheist, he rudely expressed in the urban community on the social network his negative attitude to quotations from the Bible, made fun of his interlocutor, said that " Boch is gone! ", and then, in the same manner, spoke about Halloween. After that, his two interlocutors filed statements with the police, and according to the results of a comprehensive psychological and linguistic examination against him were case has been initiated. From our point of view, there was no composition of Art. 148 CC, we considered arousal case against him as unlawful and violating his right to freedom of conscience.

At the end of February it became known that the Volga the district military court at the visiting session in Nizhnevartovsk passed a sentence on another Hizb ut-Tahrir case. Four local residents were recognized guilty under Part 2 of Art. 205.5 (participation in terrorist activities organizations) and Part 1 of Art. 282 (inciting hatred) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to suspended sentences and fines. The duration of the terms is not specified, the fines are known, that they exceed 100 thousand rubles. Before sentencing, all four convicts were held in a pre-trial detention center and were released in the courtroom. We note that in the last years of those convicted under these articles for collaboration with Hizb ut-Tahrir sentenced to real imprisonment, often for a long period.

Administrative prosecution, civil legal proceedings and other actions of the authorities

In February, in Chuvashia, the Tsivilsky District Court considered seven administrative cases filed under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of Nazi symbols) in relation to local activist of "Open Russia" Anton Kravchenko. Oppositionist fined 10,000 rubles for posting on a social network "VKontakte" of seven videos with Nazi symbols. five of them were published by an activist in 2011, one in 2012, another in 2013 year. It was reported that among these videos - containing footage from documentary film by Mikhail Romm "Ordinary fascism" film "Orthodoxy in a devilish way" (in 2016 recognized as extremist), video with footage of the entrance Soviet troops in Berlin, a comic video "Hitler's Appeal to Stalin" (an excerpt from Hitler's speech, which is overlaid with a popular Internet tirade of the hero of the film "Blood and Concrete" translated by Yuri Gavrilov). We believe that Kravchenko did not publish the videos for the purpose of propaganda of the Nazi ideology, and therefore his persecution is unlawful. TO Unfortunately, Russian law punishes public display forbidden symbolism without regard to context.

In Perm after a rally in memory of Boris Nemtsov was detained one of the organizers of the event, a public activist Valentin Murzaev. A protocol was drawn up against him under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. The reason was that that a video was posted on his social media page in 2014, containing a frame with Nazi symbols. Murzaev himself said that he did not remember such a video, but could only demonstrate Nazi symbols in anti-fascist context. The law enforcement authorities explained the detention by the fact that that Murzaev allegedly avoided meeting with the investigator. Dzerzhinsky District Court fined Murzaev a thousand rubles.

In Sochi he was sentenced to 5 days of arrest under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses a seller of military antiques who was found guilty of placing an advertisement for the sale on one of the sites German knife with symbols of the Third Reich. The knife was confiscated. From our point vision, Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses should be applied not to antique dealers, but to manufacturers of modern items with Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols and distributors of similar products. In addition, we believe that the confiscation of goods in such cases unjustified, since antiques represent material value, and not a propaganda tool at all. Unjustified and the destruction of antique objects after confiscation, since they are also of historical value and can be transferred to the museum.

Sovetsky District Court of Kazan considered the case of an administrative violation according to part 1 of Art. 20.3 Administrative Code against two leaders of the FC fan club "Ruby". One of them, Denis Bulatov, was put on trial due to the fact that on his personal page on the social network there was "When you overdid your Halloween costume" video discovered available on the social network "VKontakte" and on YouTube. Plot it is this: a man dressed as an ISIS fighter (an organization banned in Russia) comes to a costume party, from where he is driven away indignantly by the owner and other guests, including a man dressed as Hitler with a swastika on his sleeve. The case was dismissed because the judge reasonably considered that the video had exclusively humorous.

Chuvash opposition leader Dmitry Semyonov in February was again prosecuted under Art. 20.29 Administrative Code (mass distribution of extremist materials) for a banned slogan "Orthodoxy or death", this time we are talking about the mention of this phrases in the message "Open Russia". Recall that the Supreme Court of Chuvashia dismissed the appeals of Semenov Semenov, who was fined a thousand rubles for reposting photos with a deputy on the VKontakte social network Vitaly Milonov in a T-shirt with the inscription "Orthodoxy or death" and for the same amount - for a repost with a photo of Milonov in a suit, but with a mention the same slogan in the signature. After the court rejected Semenov's complaints, he reposted on his page on the social network a message about this from the page "Teams of the Open Russia", which said: "If you remember, Semyonov was attracted to responsibility for the repost of Milonov's photo with the slogan "Orthodoxy or death"". The word "death" in this message was smeared. Semenov states that he reposted this entry without supplying it no comments and thus the administrative case was initiated for the description of the inscription on the T-shirt.

The same story happened with the Chuvash activist of PARNAS Dmitry Pankov. He was charged with reposting on the social network VKontakte news from the public "Lentach" that the Novocheboksary city court terminated the proceedings on his previous case under Art. 20.29 for a repost of the same photographs of Milonov with a caption. In the news he published about the victory in court the forbidden slogan was again mentioned. At the end of the month, Pankov could not get to Egypt, where he was going on vacation. Egyptian border guards told him that he was on the list of people banned from entering the country, according to information from the Russian authorities. If that's right the Russian authorities clearly misinformed the Egyptian ones.

Recall that the mentioned slogan was banned by Cheryomushkinsky district court in 2010. He is popular among the aggressive part of the representatives. some Orthodox organizations. But historically it belongs to one of the Athos monasteries and is interpreted not as a death wish for non-Orthodox, but as opposition of Orthodoxy and spiritual death: "either we will Orthodox, or we will die spiritually." The vast majority of those who uses this slogan in any other way, understands it in this way, therefore we consider his ban is illegal. All the more absurd is the persecution for mentioning it.

The Polyarny District Court of the Murmansk Region fined Chairman of the Committee of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses "Snezhnogorsk" Andrey Eliseev according to Art. 20.29 Administrative Code (storage extremist materials for the purpose of their mass distribution). occasion was served by the fact that during the inspection of the premises of the prayer house of the community there was prohibited religious literature of Jehovah's Witnesses discovered, reportedly that it was removed and destroyed. Perhaps this is an incident that took place in October 2016. Believers then claimed that the banned pamphlets were thrown to them.

Local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses Kislovodsk (Stavropol Territory) was fined 500 thousand rubles by a court decision under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for possession of extremist materials for the purpose of mass distribution. This decision was made at the end of January. As in the described above case, the community was held accountable due to the fact that in At the time of the search in the liturgical building, a banned publication was found (11 copies of the pamphlet What Does the Bible Really Teach?). community members they also claimed that literature had been planted in the room.

Supreme Court of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic in February, decided to liquidate the local religious organization of the Witnesses Jehovah in Cherkessk as extremist. Community property in the form of a building and land will be turned into state property. occasion served the fact that two members organizations and the community itself were fined under Art. 20.29 Administrative Code for storage and the distribution of two banned pamphlets. They were unable to claim the fine. After that the community received a warning about the inadmissibility of extremist activities, however, according to the prosecutor's office, she continued to distribute banned literature.

As a reminder, we consider the persecution of the Witnesses Jehovah, the banning of their texts for extremism and the liquidation of communities as illegal actions and perceive them as religious discrimination.

In February, it became known that entered into legal the decision of the Spassky District Court issued at the end of January Penza region, in which he was fined 2 thousand rubles under Art. 20.29 Administrative Code local resident Shamil Neverov, imam of the cathedral mosque in the village of Tatarsky Sheldais, imam-mukhtasib of the Spassky, Vadinsky and Nizhnelomovsky districts, because of the fact that a forbidden book by Osman Nuri was found during a check in the mosque Topbash "Tasavvuf". From our point of view, it is recognized as extremist illegal, because it does not contain any aggressive appeals. Respectively, unlawful and persecution for its dissemination.