The ECHR communicated the complaint of Konstantin Zharinov

A complaint from a Chelyabinsk resident convicted for reposting an appeal from the Right Sector has been communicated.

In June, it became known that on May 14, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated the complaint of Chelyabinsk resident Konstantin Zharinov, convicted under Part 1 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activity) for reposting the appeal of the "Right Sector" to " Russians and other enslaved peoples ."

On September 28, 2015, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk sentenced Zharinov to two years of suspended imprisonment with a two-year probationary period and granted him amnesty. On December 4, 2015, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court approved the verdict.

Zharinov stated in the complaint that he considers his criminal prosecution politically motivated and excessive, since he immediately complied with the request to remove the text from the page on the social network. The complaint was also accompanied by orders to monitor Zharinov's page and tap his phone.

The ECHR asks the Russian side whether the sentence to Zharinov can be considered an interference with his right to freedom of expression, protected by paragraph 1 of Art. 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and if so, was this interference justified in accordance with paragraph 2 of Art. 10 of the Convention. In particular, Russia will have to indicate whether it was based on law and whether the court's interpretation of the relevant legal provisions could be said to be foreseeable, and whether the interference pursued any legitimate aims and, if so, which ones. Finally, the Russian side will have to clarify whether this interference was necessary in a democratic society; whether there was an urgent public need for it; whether the Russian courts based their decisions on an admissible assessment of the facts, whether they applied standards consistent with the principles of Art. 10 of the Convention, and whether relevant and sufficient reasons were given; and whether the requirement of proportionality of punishment was met in the present case.

We noted that Zharinov is a prominent opposition figure in Chelyabinsk, a participant in anti-war pickets and actions in defense of the local environment. In addition, as a historian, he specialized in the history of terrorism. Given that he did not agree with the published appeal, and also taking into account the nature of other publications on the author’s pages on social networks and blogs, indicating that aggressive rhetoric is not characteristic of him, we consider criminal prosecution in this case a disproportionate measure. It would be sufficient to remove the material from the page.

Sources

• Application no. 13550/16. Konstantin Vyacheslavovich ZHARINOV against Russia, lodged on March 3, 2016 // Website of the ECtHR. 2018. June 14.