The Kurgan City Court acquitted former imam Yakupov

The court decided that appealing to higher powers is not a call that stirs up enmity.

On April 25, 2017, the Kurgan city court acquitted the former imam of the city mosque, Ali Yakupov, who was accused under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity on the basis of belonging to the social group "communists"). The court decided that there was no corpus delicti in Yakupov's actions and recognized his right to rehabilitation. The prosecutor's office said they would consider appealing the decision.

The investigation claimed that on the night of November 5, 2015, Yakupov left a comment on a material published on the VKontakte social network that Muslim women in China are not allowed to wear a hijab. In the comment, Yakupov allegedly predicted "heavenly punishments" for the Chinese communists. Yakupov himself stated that he did not write a comment, and this was the work of hackers. During the debate, the defense stated that they demanded the full acquittal of Yakupov, since the investigation could not prove that it was he who made the corresponding comment. The prosecutor asked for the defendant to be sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence with a three-year probationary period.

As follows from the reasoning part of the verdict, the investigation succeeded in convincing the court of Yakupov's involvement in the publication of the commentary. However, the court decided that an appeal to higher powers cannot be a xenophobic appeal. " God himself cannot be a subject of public life, and an appeal to him cannot be considered a call for the implementation of discord ," the judge stressed.

We welcome the court's decision. In our opinion, the case against Yakupov was wrongfully initiated because the Chinese Communists do not constitute a vulnerable social group that requires protection in the form of Russian anti-extremist legislation. In addition, we believe that the vague concept of a social group in general should be excluded from the relevant articles of the Criminal Code.

Yakupov was appointed imam of the Kurgan mosque in 2015, after which local Muslims were divided: some supported the new imam, some supported the former imam Ziedali Mizrobov. Yakupov connected his criminal prosecution with this conflict. Previously, Yakupov was an imam in the Penza region and was also accused under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but the case was closed.

Sources

• Igor Lesovskikh. No extremism found in comments about hijabs // Kommersant. April 25, 2017
• Nikolai Mokrousov. "God cannot be the subject of public life" // Znak.com. April 25, 2017