Unlawful anti-extremism in July 2017

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

Rulemaking

July 29 Vladimir Putin signed three laws previously approved by Parliament, each of which makes us complain.

Among them is the law , allowing to cancel the previously adopted act on the acquisition of Russian citizenship for part of those convicted for crimes of extremist and terrorist directions. It is believed that the verdict of the court proves that at the moment citizenship, the applicant falsely claimed to be bound by Constitution and legislation, although criminal intent, obviously, may arise and after this point. It may be feared that the law will be used to deprivation of citizenship and deportation of some immigrants or residents of Crimea.

According to the law on banning the use of anonymizers and VPN services to access blocked websites in Russia, the federal law "On Information" is supplemented article 15.8, which actually requires these services to maintain blocking under the threat of sanctions, starting with blocking access to them (more about the new mechanism for combating VPNs and anonymizers we talked about here ).

Amendments to the media law provide for a ban on the establishment of a media outlet for persons who are deprived of their liberty or have a criminal record for committing crimes with using the media and the Internet or " for committing crimes, related to the implementation of extremist activities ." We do not We see convincing reasons for introducing such restrictions. The amendments also allow Roskomnadzor to refuse permission to distribute foreign periodical publication or revoke such permission if the publication does not comply with the article of the law on media abuse and anti-extremist legislation in general. The text of the law does not describe exactly how Roskomnadzor will detect violations of anti-extremist legislation. It inspires concerns about the possibility of Roskomnadzor taking out of court order of unlawful decisions that significantly restrict freedom of speech.

In mid-July, deputies Sergei Boyarsky and Andrei Alshevsky ("United Russia") contributed to State Duma a package of bills that impose on the administration of social networks the obligation to remove illegal content and impose millions of fines for failure to fulfill this obligation. According to the text of the amendments, operators of social networks numbering more than two million users from Russia, must create in the Russian territory of representation. It is proposed to oblige them to provide round-the-clock work on receiving complaints about inappropriate content, which should be submitted through a special electronic form, and " restrict access or delete by to the application of the user of the social network, the information disseminated in it, which is clearly aimed at propaganda of war, incitement of national, racial or religious hatred and enmity, unreliable and (or) defamatory honor and dignity of another person or his reputation information, other information, for the distribution of which provides for criminal or administrative responsibility within 24 hours from the date of receipt of the said application ". According to the authors of the bill, copies of unlawful content, while the remote information must be stored on the servers of operators social networks for three months. About this work, social networks should quarterly report to Roskomnadzor. It is not clear from the text of the bill whether be considered unreliable or discrediting honor and dignity only information, recognized as such by the court, and whether the administration of social networks will have the right independently assess the risk of inflammatory and xenophobic statements. It is also unclear whether social networks will be punished only for failure to provide receiving complaints from users, their untimely consideration and failure to provide reports, or violations will be considered unreasonable, in the opinion of authorities, refusals of social networks to remove content. Considering that all social networks already have mechanisms for handling complaints and removing content, it remains to be recognized that the proposed mechanism is an instrument of state censorship.

Criminal prosecution

In July, it became known that since the beginning of the month, the Leninsky District Court of Ufa has been considering criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting national hatred) in against the activist of the Bashkir national movement Sagit Ismagilov. His accused of publishing a text on the social network VKontakte, dedicated to the closure of the Institute for Humanitarian Studies in Ufa, the author whom in harsh terms he accused the Tatars of the collapse of the Bashkir culture. Text was accompanied by a photograph of a page from a book with an extract from a 16th-century poem, containing invectives against the Golden Horde Tatars. From our point of view, the work of past centuries should not be evaluated for compliance with modern notions of tolerance and, moreover, legislation on extremism. Here we are in solidarity with the corresponding clarification , which was made recently Constitutional Court. However, the combination of the two texts Indeed, it can be considered as a statement aimed at humiliation national dignity. But we believe that humiliation should be transferred from the Criminal Code to the Administrative Code as an offense, not posing a great danger to society.

In July, we learned that in June, regarding Alexei Mironov, volunteer of the headquarters of Alexei Navalny in Cheboksary, Directorate The FSB in the Republic of Chuvashia initiated a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 280 UK (public calls for extremist activities on the Internet) and Art. 282 of the Criminal Code. The decision to initiate criminal proceedings states that On July 7, 2016 , Mironov publicly posted on his VKontakte page graphic representation of the certificate of a citizen subject to conscription military service, printed in English: "God bless the USA Keep calm and f*** Russia" and an inscription over the image: "I'm officially I call for .......... power ". We believe that the persecution of Mironov under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code is unreasonable. A similar general statement in the mouth an ordinary citizen does not pose any public danger, moreover, that the audience familiarized with the image was minimal. According to Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, Mironov is accused in connection with a statement asserting the need extermination of Muslims. We cannot call this accusation unfounded.

At the beginning of the month it became known that Omutninsky district court of the Kirov region sentenced a 21-year-old resident Omutninsk to a fine of 25 thousand rubles under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (public actions, aimed at offending the feelings of believers). According to the SC, the young man was found guilty of the fact that between 2015 and 2016, " on the basis of clear disrespect for society, repeatedly publicly posted in one of the social networking sites "Internet" photo images with inscriptions that offend feelings of believers, thereby demonstrating a disdainful attitude towards them and religion ". From our point of view, prosecution under Article 148 of the Criminal Code for atheistic statements are wrong. We believe that the indefinite concept "insulting the feelings of believers" in general should be removed from the Criminal Code.

At the end of the month, we learned that in Barnaul a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code against the local resident of Natalia Telegina. According to the investigation, from 2014 to 2016, holding negative views " in relation to religion and persons related to the natives of the Caucasus , "she posted on her page in social networks images with texts that incite national hatred and enmity. Some images and texts, according to the investigation, expressed clear disrespect to society and offended the religious feelings of believers. Previously it was reported that a complaint about the crime was filed by the head of the neo-pagan community asatru Petersburg, Evgeny Saltykov, according to whom, having published a number of images, including a picture of a warrior in a horned helmet who swinging a hammer over the silhouette of a burning temple, Telegina encouraged religious intolerance and discredited the asatru movement. We consider it illegal persecution of Telegina for insulting the feelings of believers; regarding the accusation under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, we have no reason to assert that it was unlawfully presented.

At the end of July it became known that Naberezhnye Chelny detained 20-year-old Anton Ushachev and his 17-year-old girlfriend, suspected of drawing swastikas and inscriptions, including anti-religious maintenance, on the fences near the Borovets Church of the Holy Ascension Bishops farmsteads. The court arrested Ushachev for two months, the fate of his girlfriend is not reported. Ushachev was charged under Part 1 of Art. 214 of the Criminal Code (vandalism), Part 1 Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and part 2 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code. We believe that all the described acts can be would qualify under Part 2 of Art. 214 of the Criminal Code (vandalism motivated by hatred), and initiation of proceedings under the other two articles is unnecessary.

At the end of June the Supreme the court of Bashkortostan toughened the sentence passed on five followers Turkish theologian Said Nursi. In March, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Ufa recognized five local residents guilty under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code in involvement in activities banned organization "Nurcular", they were all sentenced to conditional terms of imprisonment. However, the Supreme Court of the Republic upheld appellate representation of the prosecutor's office, and as a result, two convicts received real terms of imprisonment (four years and two years three months), three more extended probationary period. We consider it illegal both the ban on Nursi's books and the ban on the "Nurcular" association, which did not exist in Russia at all.

Two sentences were pronounced on the followers illegally banned peaceful religious movement Tablighi Jamaat". At the end of June, the Chekmagushevsky Interdistrict Court of Bashkortostan found five Muslims guilty under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Four of them were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment  freedom - from two and a half to four and a half years, the fifth - to two years conditionally. At the end of July, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Barnaul sentenced local resident to one year of imprisonment with serving in a general colony regime under part 1.1 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code for involvement in the activities of Tablighi Jamaat. In the Orenburg region in early July on suspicion of involvement in the movement were detained 19 Human. According to law enforcement agencies, during the searches at they found materials recognized as extremist.

In early July, the North Caucasian District military court sentenced Dagestani public activist Hiramomed Magomedov to nine years in a strict regime colony. He was found guilty of committing crimes under Part 2 of Art. 205.5 (participation in activities terrorist organization), Part 1 of Art. 205.1 (assistance to terrorist activities), part 1 of Art. 30, art. 278 (preparation for violent capture authorities), part 1 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code (illegal possession and carrying of weapons). Consequence claimed that Magomedov on the territory of the Republic of Dagestan took part in activities of the religious party "Hizb ut-Tahrir", which is recognized in Russia terrorist. The activist said in court that he really participated in the work Hizb ut-Tahrir, but only as a political party that is not related to terrorist activities, and the charge under Art. 222 CC against it was fabricated. HRC "Memorial" recognized Magomedov as political prisoners. Given the specifics of the region, we cannot be sure of the validity of Magomedov's charges under Art. 222 of the Criminal Code, in addition, we believe wrongful accusation of Hizb ut-Tahrir followers of terrorism and preparations for the seizure of power only on the basis of party activities (carrying out meetings, reading literature, etc.).

in the Saratov region a case was initiated under Part 2 of Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code in relation to Rinat Galiullin, who in 2013 was already sentenced to six and a half years in prison for organization of a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell in Chelyabinsk, involvement in terrorist activities and preparations for a violent seizure of power. In 2015, the Supreme Court reduced his term to five years. In the Saratov region Galiullin was serving a sentence and was supposed to be released, but law enforcement agencies detained him when he was about to leave the building of the correctional institution, accusing him of holding " collective and individual conversations with prisoners and tried to involve them in the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir " . Galiullin's accomplices, who also served a five-year term, successfully released.

At the end of July, the Supreme Court of Russia toughened the sentence under part 2 Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code and Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code in respect of four followers of Hizb ut-Tahrir" from Nizhnevartovsk. In February, they were all sentenced by the Volga district military court to suspended sentences and payment of fines and released in the hall court, but the prosecutor's office challenged this decision. The Supreme Court sentenced them to real terms of imprisonment - from five to six years. In the same days, the Supreme Court toughened the sentence of the Crimean Ruslan Zeytullaev, who was found guilty in organizing the activities of "Hizb ut-Tahrir" under Part 1 of Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code. Zeytullayev's term of imprisonment in a strict regime colony was increased from 12 to 15 years.

It should be noted that there is a disturbing trend in 2017: the courts review cases of participation in banned religious organizations in the direction of tougher punishment.

Administrative the pursuit

In the middle of the month it became it is known that the court in Vladimir arrested for three days under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 Administrative Code (public display of Nazi symbols) local activist Victoria Lobova, a participant in a rally against corruption on June 12. The case was brought in connection with the fact that on the Lobova page in VKontakte was published photograph of Adolf Hitler, next to which was placed the image of Vladimir Putin in a Nazi uniform, while the picture included text signatures about the similarities in the activities of Putin and Hitler. It is obvious that the publication was made as part of a political controversy, and not for the sake of propaganda of Nazism, therefore, we consider Lobova's persecution unlawful.

At the end of July in Tolyatti The court fined 2,000 rubles under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution extremist materials) by Sergei Ionov, who organized the rally on June 12. He was prosecuted in connection with the publication in the social network "VKontakte" of the video "Let's remember the Crooks and Thieves their Manifesto-2002", which in 2013 was recognized as extremist, as we believe, without any reason.

In the middle of the month in same Togliatti world court fined the elder of the local community Jehovah's Witnesses for a thousand rubles under Art. 20.28 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (organization of activities public or religious association in respect of which it is accepted suspension decision). Reason for persecution served the fact that during the period when the activities of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia was suspended, the elder of the community organized meetings and services attended by dozens of people. Recall from our point of view, the liquidation of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses for extremism, persecution of members of their communities and banning of texts have no legal basis and are a clear manifestation of religious discrimination.

In Berezovsky Sverdlovsk region, the court fined 20 thousand rubles under Part 2 of Art. 6.17 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (non-use by a person organizing access to the Internet in places accessible to children, means of protection children from information harmful to their health and (or) development) social and rehabilitation center for minors. The reason was that content filters, installed on the computers of the center did not fully cope with the task blocking access to extremist materials. We believe that the staff institutions working with minors cannot be held responsible for the imperfection of the software provided to these institutions.

Organization ban and blocking sites for extremism

17 July Appeal The collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia dismissed the complaint against the Supreme Court April 20, 2017 decision on recognition Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia by an extremist organization and its elimination. According to the decision, The Administrative Center itself and 395 local religious organizations as its structural subdivisions, and their property turns into state income. The decision of the court entered into force, Jehovah's Witnesses intend to challenge it in the European Court of Human Rights. Recall that in Russia The number of followers of Jehovah's Witnesses exceeds one hundred thousand. Ban head organization of Jehovah's Witnesses and its structural subdivisions each of them at risk of criminal prosecution for their faith.

In the second half month, Roskomnadzor, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, entered into the register of sites, subject to blocking for calls for riots, the implementation of extremist activity or participation in mass events held with violation of the established order, the website of the St. Petersburg movement "Free Ingria" freeingria.org. Access to the site has been blocked. From our point of view view, there was no reason to block the site. Movement "Free Ingria" stands for the expansion of the independence of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, adheres to regionalist and even separatist views. But to the violent violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, the authors of "Free Ingria" are not called up. On the site you can also find materials with a sharp criticism of the authorities, for example, an article whose main idea is that for centuries, the rulers of Russia held on the territory of the country occupation policy. However, the author confines himself to the expression of opinion and does not encourages readers to take action. We didn't find it on the site. calls for participation in uncoordinated actions, and even more so for riots. In addition, we consider unlawful extrajudicial blocking of information about public promotions.