The ECHR communicated Vasily Bokin’s complaint against the ban on the article “Stop Genocide”

The ECtHR is considering a complaint against a decision taken in 2012 to recognize an article as extremist.

On September 15, 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated the complaint of Vasily Bokin, the author of the article "Stop the genocide" in the newspaper "Nash Golos", which was recognized as extremist in 2012.

Bokin's article was published in 2009 and was an open letter from Bokin to the inhabitants of the village of Oskino, who did not teach children the Erzya language. On August 21, 2012, the Inzensky District Court of the Ulyanovsk Region decided to ban it. At the same time, during the process, the judge rejected an expert opinion, carried out in 2010 by order of law enforcement agencies, according to which the article had signs of justifying terrorism, and ordered a new examination. She showed that the article could incite hatred or enmity towards the Russians and that part of the Mordovian people that does not support the study of their native language, contained humiliating characteristics of these peoples, as well as expressions that justified the possibility and necessity of using weapons, which in fact are indirect calls for violence. . The court costs for the examination in the amount of 18 thousand rubles were recovered from Bokin. On October 23, 2012, the Ulyanovsk Regional Court upheld this decision, Bokin's cassation appeals were rejected. In the spring of 2013 he filed a complaint with the ECtHR.

The ECtHR asked the Russian authorities several questions. First, Russia will have to clarify whether the proceedings were related to a dispute over civil rights and obligations or a criminal charge, which provides for ensuring the right to a fair trial. The ECtHR is interested, in particular, whether the principles of equality of arms and competition were observed when Bokin tried to challenge the results of the forensic examination.

Secondly, the Strasbourg Court is interested in whether the ban and the decision to charge Bokin with legal costs violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which refers to freedom of expression. The Russian side will have to explain whether the interference with this freedom was necessary in a democratic society, whether the article could in any context be considered as directly or indirectly calling for violence or justifying violence, hatred and intolerance, for example, with the help of sweeping statements aimed against any ethnic or other group as a whole or putting this group in a bad light. The court is also interested in whether the publication in 2009 could directly or indirectly lead to any harmful consequences in 2012.

Russia must answer whether the domestic courts provided relevant and sufficient justification for the interference with freedom of expression and whether they based their findings on properly established facts. The ECtHR wants to clarify whether the courts indicated which parts of the prohibited material were in dispute and whether they based their findings on linguistic expertise, as provided for by No. Russian Supreme Court Ruling be called fair and respectful of the interests of the individual protected by the Convention. Finally, Russia was asked to answer whether the restrictions imposed by the decision to ban Bokin's article pursued a goal other than those indicated in Art. 10 of the Convention of possible purposes of restriction of freedom of expression.

It should be noted that we believe that the material "Stop the Genocide" was unlawfully recognized as extremist: the author of the article did not call for violence in it and even claimed that it was harmful. At the same time, the style of the presentation of the terrorist version of the development of events in the article was such that it clearly aroused sympathy for him, so we believed that issuing a warning to the Nash Golos newspaper would be justified.

Sources

• Application no. 30635/13. Vasiliy Nikolayevich BOKIN against Russia. Lodged on 22 April 2013 // Website of the ECtHR. 2017. September 15.