Unlawful anti-extremism in December 2017

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

Rulemaking

On December 8, the State Duma adopted in the second reading draft law on tougher penalties for promoting terrorism. Co. the second reading it was substantially transformed. First of all, we note that the deputies proposed, within the framework of this bill, to supplement the wording of Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code (public calls for terrorist activities or public justification of terrorism). From their point of view, it should include also "propaganda of terrorism", and in the comments to the article it follows indicate that "propaganda of terrorism" refers to the activities of dissemination of materials and (or) information aimed at the formation of face of the ideology of terrorism, belief in its attractiveness, or perceptions of the permissibility of carrying out terrorist activities . It should be noted that the concept of "ideology of terrorism" is not defined in the law on combating terrorism, nor in any other official documents, so which materials will be regarded as forming such an ideology is also unclear. Besides, according to the new version of the bill is tightened - up to life imprisonment deprivation of liberty - punishment under Part.Ch. 1 and 2 Art. 205.1 CC (facilitating terrorist activities) for inducing, recruiting or otherwise involvement of a person in the commission of crimes of a terrorist nature. You can read more about this here .

On December 19, a new draft law expanding legislation in the field of relations with "foreign agents". The bill calls for amendments into the laws "On Mass Media" and "On Information, Information Technologies and on the protection of information". The authors of the bill propose, firstly, to supplement the law "On the Mass Media" with the words that individuals may receive the status of a media outlet performing the functions of a "foreign agent". In fact, such a status can be assigned to any a person who receives funds from abroad and systematically distributes any information with unclear consequences. Secondly, it is proposed to oblige "Media-foreign agents" to establish Russian organizations representing them, who will automatically receive the same status of "foreign agents". Thirdly, according to draft law, materials and media reports - "foreign agents" and Russian "foreign agents" established by them in a mandatory order must be accompanied by an indication that these materials are created "foreign agent". This requirement applies to any informational resources. In case of receipt the Prosecutor General's Office of information about the absence of such an indication, who allowed such omission the site is subject to blocking. We write more about the bill here .

The pursuit for inciting national hatred and opposition statements

In the second half of December Astrakhan regional court once again reviewed the case of the leader of the movement "Russian Astrakhan" by Igor Stenin and upheld the guilty verdict, handed down to him in May 2016 by the Sovetsky District Court of Astrakhan. The nationalist was sentenced to two years in a colony-settlement under Part. 2 tbsp. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for the implementation of extremist activities through the Internet). The defense intends to challenge this decision. Recall that the court of first instance recognized Stenin guilty of posting on the social network VKontakte under a pseudonym "Ingvar Stefan" entries on the war in Ukraine with a call to the destruction of the " Kremlin invaders "; he was also accused a comment by another user that the investigation mistook for a repost. The court of appeal - the Astrakhan Regional Court - approved this decision. Then, by order of the Supreme Court, the sentence was reviewed on appeal. instance and canceled for lack of corpus delicti, Stenin was released from the colony where he served his sentence; other similar cases in practice We do not know of anti-extremist law enforcement. However, in November the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation satisfied the cassation representation of the Prosecutor General's Office and returned Stenin's case for a new consideration in appellate instance, which this time returned to the accusatory sentence. Now Stenin is threatened with returning to the colony to serve the remainder term.

At the beginning of the month it became It is known that due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution the case of Aleksey Moroshkin (Andrey Breiva), accused under part 1, was dismissed Art. 214 of the Criminal Code (vandalism) for painting the bust of Lenin in Chelyabinsk in colors Ukrainian flag in September 2015. The case was opened in 2015, the investigation ended several times, but the prosecutor's office did not approve the indictment conclusion. Moroshkin did not admit guilt, but agreed with the dismissal of the case. We we believe that an adequate measure in this case could be the involvement of Moroshkin to administrative responsibility for petty hooliganism, and to initiate there was no basis for a criminal case.

December we learned about seven cases of prosecution under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for demonstration of Nazi symbols, not aimed at propaganda of Nazism; we consider prosecution for such actions unlawful. At the end of November, a resident Novocheboksarsk was fined for posting two videos on the social network in which Nazi symbols were used to denote a negatively evaluated ideology. In early December, the administrator of the public "Murmansk accident emergency" in social network "VKontakte" was fined for publishing a picture in which men were depicted with a sickle and a hammer and with a swastika instead of heads and signed "We can repeat. 1941-1945", as well as a modern a car, a smooth road and a comfortable hospital room - with signatures "We can not repeat"; image illustrated news headline "Russia is below Mongolia and Ethiopia in the world ranking of quality roads". In Cheboksary, the court returned to the police the case initiated against a local activist who was charged with reposting a picture on Facebook with a portrait of Vladimir Putin with a swastika painted on his forehead. The image contained the caption "He is one - there are millions of us" and a call to get out. to the March of the Millions. The police could not prove that the relevant the Facebook account actually belonged to the activist. In Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod area coordinator of local traffic against the increase in fares in public transport was sentenced to four days of administrative arrest for posting two pictures on the social network VKontakte, one of which was pictured" a Nazi eagle clenched in a fist, similar to chicken " with the inscription "To defeat fascism, destroy capitalism!" and the other was " an image with a hand holding a bird by the neck, in the claws of which is the symbols of the Nazi swastikas " with the signature "The duty of every communist and all communist movement as a whole". In Dagestan, a protocol under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses was drawn up against a local journalist due to the fact that on his page during "VKontakte" in 2012 was placed the emblem of the football club "Anji" (having, we recall, the shape of an eagle), superimposed on the coat of arms of the Third Reich. Law enforcement agencies did not take into account the satirical nature of the image, which should have been considered in the context of a conflict between supporters various clubs in 2012. A supporter was detained in Tolyatti Artpodgotovki, who was accused of publishing "VKontakte" pictures with a man " with the face of the President of the Russian Federation " in the form of an SS. However, the court returned the protocol drawn up against him to the police. due to formal violations.

At the end of the month it became known that in Norilsk, a local resident was fined under Part 2 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (manufacturing or sale for the purpose of promotion or acquisition for the purpose of sale or promotion Nazi paraphernalia or symbols) for posting on the Avito website advertisement for the sale of dishes with symbols of Nazi Germany. Most likely, we are talking about the announcement of the sale of antique German dishes from the Third Reich. We believe that this part of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses should not be applied to antique dealers, but to modern manufacturers of items from the Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols (badges, clothes, copies of weapons, etc.) and distributors of such products.

In mid-December, St. Petersburg the city court approved the decision of the Leninsky district court, issued in March this year, recognizing as extremist material an article by the historian Kirill Alexandrov "Bandera and Bandera. Who they really were." The decision of the Leninsky District Court was based on an expert opinion specialists from St. Petersburg State University, according to which the article contains a denial of acts and approval of the crimes established by the Nuremberg Tribunal and slander in regarding the activities of the USSR in the years World War II, i.e. composition of Art. 354 ¹ UK. We got acquainted with Alexandrov's article and did not find any denial in it crimes of the Nazis and their allies, nor the dissemination of any information about activities of the USSR, except for the well-known ones. In addition, we consider it necessary pay attention to the fact that even if any text corresponds to the composition of any article of the Criminal Code, this does not mean that it can be recognized as extremist. For this in court it must be established that it complies with Part 3 of Art. 1 of the law "On countering extremist activity, according to which extremist are materials " calling for the implementation of extremist activities or justifying or justifying the need implementation of such activities, including the work of managers National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, Fascist Party of Italy, publications substantiating or justifying national and (or) racial superiority or justifying the practice of military or other crimes aimed at the complete or partial destruction of any ethnic, social, racial, national or religious group ".

In December, the Federal List of Extremist five materials were submitted (one video, three articles and a demotivator), prohibited by decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg. All these materials contain allegations of the involvement of Russian special services in terrorist attacks, taking place on the territory of Russia since the late 1990s, as well as terrorist attacks on territory of Ukraine since the development of the military conflict there. The court relied on provision of the law "On counteraction extremist activity", according to which such activity include public knowingly false accusations of this activity (and terrorism, in particular) government officials. However, from our point of view view, the court did not convincingly prove that the authors of the materials or commentators on whose opinion they refer to, put forward "knowingly false" theses, then There are such theses in which they themselves have no reason to believe. Calls us doubts and the very provision of the law. It can be assumed that slanderous accusations of high-ranking government officials of serious crimes are fraught with destabilization and therefore classified by the legislator as an extremist activity, but it is not clear why some such accusations, say, of murders on on the basis of various kinds of extremism, should be considered a type of extremist activities, and others - for example, accusations of other criminal murders - No. We believe that such a provision in the law on extremist activity not a place: accusations of any kind of crimes brought by one person against another, may be considered in court in the framework of defamation suits (the question of whether in which of the codes the place of the article on libel needs a separate discussion).

In the middle of the month, Roskomnadzor At the request of the Prosecutor General's Office blocked the website of the movement "Open Russia". The Prosecutor General's Office published a press release in which reported that she " sent to Roskomnadzor demands to restrict access to Internet sites distributing informational materials foreign non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized unwanted on the territory of Russia ", that is, to the websites of 11 organizations, included in the respective list Ministry of Justice; in total now we are talking about 21 resources. December 12 social network "Odnoklassniki" blocked the account of "Open Russia" "for violation of the regulations." On December 13, a letter from Roskomnadzor demanding within 24 hours block the account of the organization under the threat of blocking the entire social network got twitter. On December 14, it became known that a similar letter from YouTube received a demand to remove the Open Russia channel. Both platforms did not block Open Russia accounts. Note that in April, when the British organizations of Open Russia were included in the list of undesirable, representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office pointed out that movement "Open Russia", registered in Russia (which belongs to a blocked site), does not apply to unwanted. Recall we We consider the out-of-court blocking of online materials unacceptable, since it leads to arbitrariness and abuse by law enforcement agencies and attack on freedom of speech.

The pursuit religious organizations and believers

At the beginning of December in Babushkinsky Moscow District Court received a criminal case against eight alleged members banned religious association Tablighi Jamaat. They are accused by h.h. 1 and 2 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code in the organization of extremist activities organization and participation. All the accused were detained in Moscow and Kazan in December 2016 - January 2017. The criminal case was initiated by the FSB of Russia on city ​​of Moscow and the Moscow region. We We consider the ban on Tablighi Jamaat and the persecution of Muslims for involvement in it is unfounded, since the movement is engaged in propaganda Islam and was not seen in any calls for violence.

On the same days, Privolzhsky the district military court at a meeting in Kazan sentenced eight followers of the radical Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir under Part. 1 st. 205.5 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of a terrorist organization) and Part 1 Art. 282.2 (organization of activities of an extremist organization). Besides, one of them was also convicted under Part 1 of Art. 205.1 (funding of prohibited organization) for collecting donations for the printing of Hizb literature ut-Tahrir", the other - under part 4 of article 150 (involving a minor in criminal group). All of them were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. freedom - from 16 to 19 years old - in a strict regime colony, some were also fined.

In mid-December, the same court ruled verdict in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case in Bashkiria. The court found guilty of organizing the activities of the organization, recognized as terrorist, or the participation in it of five residents of Sterlitamak and Salavat. They received from 11 to 16 years in a strict regime colony.

Recall that we consider it illegal accusation of Hizb ut-Tahrir followers of terrorist crimes only on the basis of party activities (holding meetings, reading literature, etc.).

In the second half of the month of Leningrad the regional court rejected the appeal of four foreign organizations Jehovah's Witnesses for recognition of the publication "Holy Scripture. Translation of the New peace" (2014) and three brochures of Jehovah's Witnesses with extremist materials. Thus, the decision to ban them, issued by the Vyborg City Court on August 17, 2017, was approved. We believe that the recognition of extremist as the Bible in translation Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as their other publications, unlawfully, and we regard such prohibitions as manifestations of religious discrimination. Moreover, in this case the prosecutor's office and the court, without proper reason, bypassed the law prohibiting the recognition extremist scriptures of world religions, which is a sad precedent that opens up the possibility of banning other translations and presentations sacred books.

At the beginning of the month, the European Court of Rights rights (ECtHR) partially communicated the complaint of the Administrative Center Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and its chairman Vasily Kalin, filed in February of this year. The applicants contested the inadmissibility warning extremist activity issued to the Administrative Center by the Prosecutor General's Office in March 2016, and the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, adopted in April 2017, according to to which the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 of their local congregations were liquidated as extremist organization and its structural divisions. Jehovah's Witnesses failed challenge neither the warning nor the liquidation decision in the Russian courts. On the basis of Art. 9 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention) guaranteeing the right to freedom of religion, taken together from Art. 11, guaranteeing the right to freedom of association, and Art. 14 prohibiting discrimination, the applicants complained of unlawful, unjustified and discriminatory interference with their right to freedom of religion related to liquidation of the Administration Center. In addition, on the basis of Art. 1 Additional Protocol to the European Convention protecting the right property, the confiscation of the property of the Administration Center was appealed. ECtHR put before Russia the question of whether in this case it really had place a violation of all specified provisions of the European Convention. Complaint will considered as a matter of priority. Answers to questions of the ECtHR Russian side must be submitted by March 23, 2018.

The pursuit for anti-religious remarks

At the beginning of December, the Industrial District the court of Barnaul issued a guilty verdict in the case of neo-pagan Natalya Telegina, accused under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the feelings of believers) and part 1 Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement of national and religious hatred and humiliation dignity). The court sentenced her to 2 years in prison on probation. a trial period of 1 year and 6 months for publications in VKontakte. Telegina said she would appeal the verdict. Insulting the feelings of believers the court saw in the publication of a picture with a warrior in a horned helmet, who swings a hammer over the silhouette of a burning temple. Six anti-Christian demotivators, according to the court, they incited hatred and humiliated the dignity of Christians. Also in one publication - a demotivator about people from the Caucasus - the court found signs humiliation of the dignity of a group of persons united on the basis of nationality. We We consider unlawful the prosecution of Telegina under Art. 148 of the Criminal Code, since are convinced that the concept of "insulting the feelings of believers" in general should be excluded from the Criminal Code as having no clear legal meaning. Concerning charges under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, then signs of inciting religious hatred in We do not see Telegina's publications. Some of them can be regarded as degrading Christians, but we believe that degrading should be decriminalized as an act of minor public danger. Telegina's anti-Caucasian publication is unquestionably racist, but it is unlikely whether she, in and of herself, would merit criminal prosecution.