The government did not support the abolition of “Dadin’s article”

The Government Commission on Legislative Activities did not support the Liberal Democratic Party's initiative to abolish criminal liability for repeated violations of the law on rallies. This is reported by Interfax.

“The bill was not supported,” the source said.

The commission's response states that the explanatory note to the bill does not contain statistical data confirming the need to abolish this article of the Criminal Code.

The Commission also refers to the decision of the Constitutional Court, which previously found no grounds for recognizing the norm as contrary to the Constitution.

For the complete exclusion from the Criminal Code of Art. 212.1 of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment for repeated violations at rallies, was previously made by the Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova and the head of the Russian Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev. According to the press secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov, Moskalkova's proposal "deserves to be studied."

In addition, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko stated the need to amend the article in order to eliminate "double interpretations" and eliminate the possibility of abuse of punishment.

Oppositionist Ildar Dadin was the first and so far the only person convicted in Russia for repeated violation of the procedure for holding mass rallies. In February 2017, the Constitutional Court, having considered his complaint, decided to reconsider the activist’s case, and also recognized that Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code needs to be improved.

The court ruling stated that the said article was in conformity with the fundamental law of the country. At the same time, the court pointed out that a prerequisite for initiating a case under this article is the existence of decisions that have entered into force to bring a person to administrative responsibility for violations during the holding and organization of a public event (Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

On February 22, the Russian Supreme Court ruled to release Dadin. Four days later, the oppositionist was released. At that time, from the punishment assigned to him, he had to serve about five months.

Vera Yurchenko