The ECHR communicated the complaint of a Tatar human rights activist who was imprisoned for posts on a social network

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) communicated the complaint of Tatar public figure and human rights activist Rafis Kashapov. He was sentenced to three years in prison for calls to violate the territorial integrity of Russia (Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code) and inciting national hatred (Part 1 of Article 282). This was reported to OVD-Info by Damir Gainutdinov, a lawyer for the International Human Rights Group “Agora”.

The European Court posed a number of questions to the Russian government. In particular, were there appropriate and sufficient reasons for the pre-trial detention of Kashapov, was there a violation of his right to freedom and personal integrity, was the sentence for six posts on the social network VKontakte an interference with the right of a public figure to freedom of expression, and if so, whether the intervention was necessary in a democratic society.

Russia must answer the European Court's questions by May 4th.

In the complaint, Rafis Kashapov claims a violation of his “right to liberty and security of person” (Article 5 of the Convention) and “freedom of expression” (Article 10 of the Convention).

On December 27, 2017, Rafis Kashapov was released from prison. In October, the court canceled the administrative supervision previously assigned to Kashapov after his release.

Kashapov, chairman of the branch of the All-Tatar Public Center in Naberezhnye Chelny, was arrested in December 2014 for publishing three texts and one demotivational message on the Internet criticizing the annexation of Crimea and Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine. On September 15, 2015, judge of the Naberezhnye Chelny City Court Dan Shakurov sentenced the social activist to three years of general imprisonment for inciting hatred or enmity (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code) and public calls for separatism via the Internet (Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code).

On November 13, 2015, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan canceled the additional punishment in the form of a ban on using social networks, and left the rest of the sentence unchanged.