An Astrakhan resident was convicted of calling for a referendum

A resident of Astrakhan received a suspended sentence for publishing in Odnoklassniki a call to hold a referendum on the formation of the Astrakhan People's Republic.

On July 5, 2018, the Leninsky District Court of Astrakhan passed a verdict in the case of local resident Yesen Baikubenov, accused under Part 2 of Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code (public calls for separatism made on the Internet). He was sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year and six months with a two-year probation period and a one-year ban from holding positions in local government.

The court found that on February 5, 2017, Baikubenov published a text in Odnoklassniki that began with the words “Astrakhan is bankrupt!!!! everyone is being laid off...” and ending with the words “Who agrees, to a referendum! Astrakhan residents, classify and let’s act until They completely died here!” A linguistic examination conducted by an expert from the FSB Directorate for the Astrakhan Region showed that this text contained “ motivated calls for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, in particular a call for organizing a referendum in order to resolve the issue of withdrawing the Astrakhan Region from the list of subjects Russian Federation and the formation of the Astrakhan People's Republic (APR) ."

The defendant fully admitted his guilt and applied for a trial in a special manner .

We consider the sentence imposed on Baikubenov to be unlawful. We believe that only calls for violent separatism deserve prosecution, and there are no indications of such calls in the verdict; calls for a referendum, in our opinion, should not be prosecuted criminally. Therefore, we opposed the introduction of Article 280.1 into the Criminal Code, which contributes to the unreasonable restriction of peaceful discussion on the topic of the territorial composition of the Russian Federation.

Sources

• Case card No. 1-299/2018 // Website of the Leninsky District Court of Astrakhan. 2020. January 27.