Unlawful anti-extremism in September 2017

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

Rulemaking

In September it became It is known that back in July, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation rejected the complaints of nationalists Alexander Belov (Potkin) and Evgeny Kort at st. 282 of the Criminal Code, as well as previously rejected a similar complaint by Anton Nosik. In the complaints of Belov and Kort it was stated that Art. 282 of the Criminal Code served as the basis for bringing them to criminal responsibility for their political activities, that it is contrary to the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of thought and speech to everyone, and " disproportionately restricts the rights of citizens, as it allows to bring to criminal responsibility for the opinion expressed, while using indefinite the concepts of "social group" and "motives of hatred or enmity", as well as to appoint criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment for actions that did not result in the infliction of harm to human health or property and did not create a safety hazard population and the environment ." The Constitutional Court refused to accept both complaints for consideration, because Art. 282 of the Criminal Code complies with the restrictions on freedom of speech established international law, and there is no uncertainty in the composition of the article. We do not take the wording of this article directly contrary to the Constitution, but we believe that the Russian anti-extremist legislation, including Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, needs clarification (see our " Minimum offers... ").

Persecution for inciting a national hate and opposition speeches

In mid-September Novocheboksarsky the city court sentenced Alexei Mironov, a volunteer in the headquarters of Alexei Navalny in Cheboksary, by 2 years 3 months in a colony-settlement. Mironov was found guilty of Part 2 Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for the implementation of extremist activities on the Internet) and Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting national hatred). Reason for persecution of Mironov was what he posted on his page in social network "VKontakte" image of a citizen's certificate subject to call for military service, with printed text in English: "God bless the USA Keep calm and f*** Russia" and the inscription over the image: "I officially call for a violent change of power." We believe, that there are grounds for persecuting an activist under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code was not. Similar anti-government speech of a general nature from the lips of an ordinary citizen does not pose any danger to the state, especially since the audience, familiarized with the publication, was minimal. According to Art. 282 Mironov was accused of liaison with a statement asserting the need for the extermination of Muslims. This We do not consider the accusation unfounded. However, the punishment imposed on Mironov consider it too harsh.

At the end of the month Simferopol district the court delivered a verdict in the case of the deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ilmi Umerova. The court sentenced him to two years in a colony-settlement with a two-year a ban on public activities, despite the fact that the prosecutor demanded for him conditional term. Criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code (public calls for violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation using the media or the Internet) was initiated in May 2016 after Umerov made a speech in March live on the ATP channel in Ukraine. We consider the persecution unlawful Crimean Tatars for calling to return Crimea to Ukraine: it is impossible to blame separatism of people who initially did not recognize the annexation of the territory, on where they lived, to Russia. Moreover, from the point of view of international law the question of the legality of the annexation of Crimea to Russia is not clear, and the Crimean Tatars are entitled to their own opinion in this dispute. Note also the severity sentence to Umerov: he was given a real term despite the fact that he suffers a number of diseases.

In the middle of the month it became It is known that on August 30, the European Court of Human Rights communicated complaints about the blocking of the websites Kasparov.ru, Grani.ru, EZH.ru in 2012-2016, website of the Roskomsvoboda project and Worldview of Russian Civilization. The ECtHR combined five applications into one case, considering that they touch on similar issues. Applicants believe that restricting access to sites illegally and "does not pursue a legitimate aim". The ECtHR turned to Russian authorities with questions on the case, and, in particular, asked whether the norms of Russian legislation on blocking are " sufficient accurate and predictable in their application " and " do they give a sufficient degree of protection against arbitrariness ." Center "Sova" considers it unlawful to block all these sites.

Persecution of religious organizations and believers

At the beginning of September, we learned about another case of involvement in the banned radical Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir." The prosecutor's office of Dagestan reported that it had sent North Caucasian District Military Court case under Part 2 of Art. 205.5 of the Criminal Code (participation in activities of a terrorist organization) in relation to I. Mammadov. We believe, that there are grounds for banning Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist there was no organization, and the accusations of its members under anti-terrorist articles, based only on party activities (holding meetings, reading literature, etc.) - these are the charges brought against Mammadov - they are unlawful.

In the middle of the month to the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation a supervisory appeal was filed against the decision to liquidate the Management Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local communities and the prohibition of their activities as extremist. Jehovah's Witnesses ask for a complete reversal of the decision of the Supreme court dated April 20, 2017, which was confirmed by the Appellate panel of the Supreme Court on July 17, 2017, and suspend its execution until completion of proceedings in the supervisory court. In the complaint, in particular, states that the ban on religious practice and dissemination of religious beliefs as extremist activity violates the uniformity in the interpretation and application by the courts of the rules of law, as well as the rights and legitimate interests of an indefinite circle of persons professing the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses , and thus the public interests of the Russian democratic society as a whole "to ensure the religious pluralism and protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen .

Same days four foreign organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses applied to the Leningrad Regional court with an appeal against the decision of the Vyborg City Court dated 17 August 2017 on the recognition as extremist of the publication "Holy Scripture. New World Translation (2014) and three pamphlets. The complaint states that, while accepting decision to ban the Bible in the translation of Jehovah's Witnesses and three pamphlets, court relied on an examination compiled under the guidance of a specialist who does not have the necessary qualifications. Meanwhile, Jehovah's Witnesses presented to the Vyborg city ​​court opinions of authoritative linguists and religious scholars who refuted the conclusions of the above examination as unfounded and directly erroneous. The court of first instance did not take these conclusions into account, now with they will be available to the district court.

Recall, from the point of view of the SOVA Center, liquidation of organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses for extremism, persecution of their members communities and text bans have no legal basis and are glaring manifestation of religious discrimination.

In the middle of the month, it became known that on August 30-31, the ECtHR communicated eight complaints about the ban or refusal to register several religious organizations and persecution for involvement in their activities, and also on the recognition of a number of religious works as extremist. All these complaints, filed with the ECtHR from 2011 to 2017, were accepted for consideration at the same time, because they complained about the violation of Art. 9, 10 and 11 European Convention on the right to freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association. The ECtHR is to consider judgments Russian courts affecting most of the religious directions, whose adherents are subjected to discrimination and persecution on the territory of the Russian Federation: Muslims, in particular, studying the legacy of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi, followers Tablighi Jamaat movement and Salafists, Scientologists, adepts Chinese spiritual practice "Faluggong" and the international organization "Aum Shinrikyo". Decisions to be made in Strasbourg are fundamentally are important for further judicial practice in cases of religious organizations and, more broadly, – in cases concerning the right to freedom of conscience – both in Russia and in some former republics of the USSR, in their religious policy oriented for example RF. However, it should be borne in mind that Russia has repeatedly ignored the decisions of the ECtHR in this area.