Unlawful anti-extremism in March 2019

We publish an overview of the main and most significant events in the field of misuse of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in March 2019.

Rulemaking

In March, Parliament adopted and the President signed a package of laws aimed against fake news and insults to society, the state and officials in the Internet. "Unreliable socially significant information disseminated under the guise of reliable messages" threatening citizens, public order, etc., Roskomnadzor will be able to block on request Prosecutor General's Office, while registered online media will be given the opportunity to promptly delete such messages to avoid blocking. For the dissemination of "knowingly false" information introduced administrative liability under Art. 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (abuse of freedom mass media) in the form of large fines, differentiated depending on from the degree of alleged or real harm - up to 1.5 million rubles for legal entities.

"Information expressing in an indecent form, which offends human dignity and public morality", a clear disrespect for society, state, state symbols, authorities. Owners Sites will have a day to delete such information. Citizens for its dissemination will be punished administratively with fines and arrests up to 15 days in in accordance with the new parts of Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (petty hooliganism).

More details about above mentioned innovations we wrote here . In our opinion, these laws operate with unclear concepts, introduce excessive norms and imply unreasonable interference with the law Russian citizens to freedom of expression, clearly aimed at suppressing criticism of the activities of the authorities.

was also adopted and signed A law , obliging lawyers and accountants to freeze the funds of clients from the list of extremists and terrorists of Rosfinmonitoring, and the law, prohibiting the persons on this list from working at nuclear installations.

In addition, the government Russia adopted a resolution amending the rules for maintaining the Unified register of banned sites in accordance with the law signed back in December 2018. The Decree gives Rosmolodezh the authority to making decisions to block "information, aimed at inducing or otherwise involving minors in committing illegal actions that pose a threat to their life and (or) health or for the life and (or) health of other persons". We believe that to information, the out-of-court blocking of which can be initiated by the agency, may be attributed to a wide variety of statements, while the order of their evaluation on the subject of a potential threat to someone's life and health will, apparently, opaque, which opens up scope for arbitrariness.

Prosecution for incitement to hatred and opposition speech

In the middle of the month, an activist of the Bashkir national movement Airat Dilmukhametov. He was accused of publishing Internet calls to violate the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation (part 2 of article 280.1 UK). Law enforcement claims related to video message Dilmukhametov, in which he announced his intention to win the election of the head Bashkortostan, after which to initiate the renegotiation of the federal treaty between subjects of the Russian Federation on new terms. We believe that persecution Dilmukhametov in this case is unlawful. He did not talk about separation from Russia, and besides, his plans looked more than abstract: he did not offered no concrete steps to implement his program and did not call to violent methods of its implementation. From our point of view, only calls for violent separatism may be prohibited in the interests of maintaining security, and a ban on any public discussion of a possible territorial reorganization of Russia unduly restricts the right to freedom words. In fact, the current wording of Art. 280.1 of the Criminal Code, prohibiting any appeals to separatism, allows prosecution for a discussion on political issues of public interest, so we speak for changing it.

Volgograd Regional Court in March fined 200 thousand rubles according to part 3 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code (public desecration of symbols of Russian military glory) Alexey Volkov. Alexei Navalny's Volgograd headquarters coordinator in 2017 year, after they splashed brilliant green at Navalny, published in the community supporters in the opposition in the social network "VKontakte" collage with covered green monument "Motherland is calling!". We consider the verdict to Volkov illegal. The creators and distributors of the collage obviously had no intention express disrespect for the monument and contribute to the rehabilitation of Nazism - on the contrary, they compared the clearly illegal attack on Navalny with an attack on a famous sculpture. It is not entirely clear from a legal point of view Is it possible to consider the distribution of such an image as a desecration of the monument. In addition, the concept of "symbols of Russia's military glory", which used in the wording of Part 3 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code, not disclosed in the legislation, and it is not clear what exactly should be considered as such.

At the beginning of the month, we became aware of the case application of Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of Nazi symbolism), which we tend to classify as illegal. The court in Chita imposed local civil activist Bogdan Akimov a fine of 1.5 thousand rubles. rubles, after law enforcement agencies found on his page two images with German soldiers containing Nazi symbols. The activist claimed to have kept them years ago when he was preparing a report. by history. The content of his page on the social network also does not contain any evidence that he sympathizes with Nazi ideology. Unfortunately, current Russian legislation allows to punish for any displaying Nazi symbols without regard to context.

Persecution of religious organizations and believers

In connection with the partial decriminalization of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity) in Kabardino-Balkaria in March, the persecution of Arkadi was stopped Akopyan, a Jehovah's Witness from Prokhladny, and the charge under this article was dropped from Yury Zalipaev from Mayskoye (his persecution under Article 280 of the Criminal Code on calls to extremist activity continues). Maysky resident Yulia Rodionova back in February, fined under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for possession of prohibited materials Jehovah's Witnesses.

At the same time, arrests were made in different regions of the country in March on new criminal cases under Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code (organization of the activities of an extremist organization or participation in one). Investigations took place in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region, Yalta, Magadan, Zeya, Amur region, Luchegorsk, Primorsky Territory (here, two believers, Yuri Belosludtsev and Sergei Sergeev, were sent under arrest), Kirov, Yemanzhelinsk, Chelyabinsk region.

We believe that the decision to recognize organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia extremist had no legal grounds, and, accordingly, unlawfully and subsequent criminal prosecution for continuing to operate forbidden communities.

There are ten followers of the Islamic movement in Orenburg Tablighi Jamaat were found guilty of organizing activities extremist organization and participation in it (parts 1 and 2 of article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). Previously convicted Alexander Shudobaev was sentenced to six and a half years in prison strict regime, the rest of the defendants received from two to two and a half years general regime colonies. We regard the Tablighi Jamaat ban as illegal, because this movement was engaged in the promotion of its version Islam and was not seen in any calls for violence.

In the middle of the month, five followers of the Islamic radical party "Hizb ut-Tahrir" from Tatarstan, who were accused of organizing terrorist activities organization or participation in it (parts 1 and 2 of article 205.5 of the Criminal Code), as well as inclination to terrorist activities (part 1 of article 205.1 of the Criminal Code) and the involvement of a minor in the commission of a crime (part 4 of article 150 UK). Ruslan Sungatov, Rustem Yamaliev, Ilnar Zinnatov, Marat Tulyakov and Irek Nasirov received terms from 14 to 22 years in prison, depending on the severity accusations. The court found all five guilty of being from 2013 to 2017 organized and attended Hizb ut-Tahrir meetings in Tatarstan and encouraged other Muslims to join the organization.

At the end of March in the Crimea and Rostov-on-Don accusations of organizing the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir and participating in it 24 people were detained and then arrested, many of them activists of the Crimean solidarity".

We believe that persecution of members "Hizb ut-Tahrir" on anti-terrorist articles only on the basis of party activities (holding meetings, reading and distributing literature, etc.) is unlawful, since this organization, recognized in Russian terrorist, was not seen in involvement in a terrorist activities.

Persecution for anti-religious speech

In March, we became aware of the excitement criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (insulting the feelings of believers) in Kirov. The investigation reported that a resident of the city posted drawings and inscriptions on the Internet, humiliating Christians and clergy. We consider it persecution unlawful, since in general we are in favor of an exception from composition of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code of the vague concept of "insulting religious feelings believers", which does not and cannot have a clear legal meaning. If the publications of a citizen of Kirov contained insults that can be qualify as "humiliation of dignity on the basis of attitude towards religion", then a proportional measure would be to initiate proceedings under Article 20.3.1 Code of Administrative Offenses, but not criminal prosecution.