Falun Gong follower fined in Sochi

Sergei Baldanov from Sochi was found guilty of distributing an unforbidden book, which he gave to read to a lover of the fight against "sects".

On May 31, 2017, the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi fined a local resident, a follower of the Chinese spiritual practice "Falun Gong" Sergei Baldanov under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution of extremist materials) for three thousand rubles and confiscated Li Hongzhi's book "Falun Dafa."

The reason for the administrative prosecution was following. March 1, 2017, FSB officers conducted operational-search activities in the park to them. Frunze in Sochi and confiscated the book "Falun Dafa" from a certain A.B. Kondratenko. Kondratenko testified that she received it from Baldanov. As Baldanov himself explained, he regularly did the exercises in the park and talked about "Falun Gong" to everyone, guided by various literature, including the book "Falun Dafa". He gave this book for review to a certain Arina. The FSB officers drew up a protocol against Baldanov, the materials were submitted to the court.

The court found Baldanov guilty of distributing extremist literature on the grounds that he distributed Lee's book Hongzhi, author of the banned tract Zhuan Falun. At the same time, the court did not raise the issue of the identity of the Falun Dafa publications. and "Zhuan Falun" and, thus, Baldanov, contrary to the law, was fined for distributing an unbanned book. Note also that this distribution cannot be called massive, since Baldanov gave Kondratenko one own instance. It is worth paying attention to the fact that Arina Kondratenko previously she was a witness in the scandalous case of the pastor of the Pentecostal evangelical community Alexei Kolyasnikov, who was fined under Part 2 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (holding a public event without filing, in the prescribed manner, notification of its holding) for reading the bible in a cafe. Recall that the case was considered in the same Khostinsky district court, now the pastor is challenging his decision in the ECtHR. Kondratenko then admitted that she came to the cafe on purpose: supposedly to make sure that Pentecostals are not a sect.

Recall the treatise of the founder Li Hongzhi's Falun Gong Movement Zhuan Falun was banned in 2011 by the Pervomaisky District Court Krasnodar Territory on the grounds that it promotes the superiority adherents of the Falun Gong ideology over other people; a complaint against this prohibition was filed with the ECtHR. From our point view, the book does not contain any signs of extremism: propaganda of the truth own convictions cannot be regarded as incitement to hatred.

Sources

• Inc. inf.