Unlawful anti-extremism in May 2019

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

Rulemaking

In the middle of the month, a package was submitted to the State Duma bills to ban the dissemination of information conducive to the introduction sanctions against the Russian state, citizens and organizations. Its author Deputy Mikhail Yemelyanov ("Fair Russia") proposed to ban collection, transmission and dissemination of information conducive to the imposition of sanctions against Russia and Russians, and information about their circumvention of sanctions. It is proposed to introduce criminal liability for dissemination in the media and the Internet as protected the law of secrets, as well as any other information that contributed to the imposition of sanctions. The author of the bill believes that for this it is necessary to introduce a new art. 281.1, which would provide for penalties of up to five years in prison years with a fine of up to five million rubles and a ban on certain activities - depending on the circumstances - up to five or up to 10 years. In addition, Emelyanov proposes to supplement Art. 128.1 of the Criminal Code (slander) by the part punishing for slander against persons subjected to sanctions or which has become one of the grounds for the imposition of sanctions, with a fine of up to 5 million rubles or imprisonment for up to five years. From our point of view, Emelyanov's proposals regarding the distribution information that does not constitute a legally protected secret or personal data, directly contradict Art. 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which guarantees freedom of speech and mass media. In addition, they provide for the possibility of criminal prosecution for acts committed without criminal intent. Not quite clear Also, how exactly is it supposed to establish the fact that dissemination or transmission of information really contributed to the introduction sanctions.

Practice of the ECtHR

In May, we learned that on April 30 Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled The European Court of complaints of Syktyvkar activist Grigory Kablis about the refusal to agree picket, as well as extrajudicial blocking of three posts on the website "7x7" and an account on the social network "VKontakte" due to publications about the planned public event. The court found that Russia violated Art. 10, 11 and 13 European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing freedom of expression opinion, freedom of assembly and the right to an effective remedy, and ordered her to pay Kablis 12.5 thousand euros as compensation for moral damages and 2.5 thousand euros in respect of legal costs.

In addition, not in accordance with the ECtHR Convention recognized the blocking mechanism itself according to the so-called. Lugovoy's law , fixed in Art. 15.3 Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and on the protection of information". In particular, the court noted that this article contains too broad wording regarding the prohibition of the dissemination of information on activities carried out in violation of the law, according to which, in the absence of interpretations by the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, it turns out that any, even the most insignificant, procedural violation in this area may cause blocking of posts on the Internet. Moreover, the Prosecutor General's Office may block a site or social network account with illegal material without considering whether it is necessary to block this entire site or account in general, while the obligation to investigate this issue follows directly from Convention and law enforcement practice of the ECtHR. However, a wide range discretion of the Prosecutor General's Office, according to the ECtHR, makes it almost impossible judicial review of blocking decisions.

Moreover, the Strasbourg Court noted that taking into account such circumstances as the one-month period for considering complaints, the prohibition invite to participate in the rally until its approval and a short period the time allotted for approval, it cannot be guaranteed that a complaint against blocking information about the event will be considered before the day, on which it is assigned, and after that date the review of the blocking decision loses every meaning.

Prosecution for incitement to hatred and opposition speech

The revision process continued in May sentences handed down under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred), partially decriminalized at the beginning of the year. In particular, at the beginning of the month, the "pokemon catcher" Ruslan Sokolovsky, convicted under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, part 1 of Art. 148 of the Criminal Code (public actions aimed at insulting the feelings of believers) and Art. 138.1 of the Criminal Code (illegal circulation of special technical means designed to secretly obtain information), and in in mid-May, the conviction was expunged from the nationalist Vladimir Timoshenko, convicted for inciting hatred towards the social group "employees of institutions and institutions government authority".

At the same time, we encountered the first cases application of the norm, partially replacing Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, - art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, - which can be considered illegal. At the beginning of the month in Novocheboksarsk local fan of CSKA Evgeny Ogurtsov was fined 10 thousand rubles for publishing a collection of poems of his own authorship and advertised it in the social network "In contact with". A number of poems contained unflattering expressions in address of players and fans of "Spartak". We didn't have the opportunity to get acquainted with the content of Ogurtsov's poems. However, the players themselves and the fans "Spartak", from our point of view, do not form a vulnerable social group subject to special protection against manifestations of hatred, and if Ogurtsov did not call for violent actions against them, the reason for his there was no persecution.

In Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk Region, the case under Art. 20.3.1 Administrative Code was initiated against the former head of the local branch "Young Guard of "United Russia"" by Vladimir Ivashchenko, who called townspeople "limited herd" and "cattle" for the fact that they elected LDPR candidate Anna Shchekina as mayor, and spoke sharply against her herself. Ivashchenko later apologized for these remarks, but the Kirov lawyer Yaroslav Mikhailov nevertheless applied to the prosecutor's office with a statement about this incident. We believe that the inhabitants of the city as a whole should not be classified as particularly vulnerable populations who require protection from excitation hatred, and in general we are in favor of exclusion from Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses the indefinite term "social group" because it gives room for abuse. However, in the decision of the prosecutor's office to initiate case states that the question of whether Ivashchenko’s statements degraded residents of Ust-Ilimsk and whether these residents form a social group requires "conducting an administrative investigation with the production of research or expertise."

At the beginning of the month in Nizhny Novgorod individual entrepreneur Elena Smolova was fined 3 thousand rubles according to part 2 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (sale for the purpose of promoting Nazi paraphernalia or symbols), although she did not propagate the Nazi ideology: in her outlet St. George ribbons were sold with a badge on which a red star breaks the Nazi swastika.

According to part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public displaying Nazi symbols) an 18-year-old resident was fined in May Vladikavkaz, who posted on his page in VKontakte satirical video "Hitler and Skype" - dubbed in 2009 an excerpt from the movie "Bunker", in no way promoting Nazi ideology. At the end of the month, a protocol was drawn up under the same article in regarding Ilnur Kamaldinov, a resident of Novocheboksarsk, who posted an image on social networks boxes of tea signed "Princess Ziga. Selected Aryan" and swastika (in early June, Kamaldinov was fined 1.5 thousand rubles). This publication can be considered unethical, regarded as a manifestation of intolerant humor, but it hardly gave rise to persecution, since Kamaldinov, judging by apparently does not adhere to neo-Nazi views and did not set out to promote Nazism.

A positive example from our point of view attitude to the persecution of citizens under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 Code of Administrative Offenses filed by the prosecutor Soviet district of Omsk. He appealed the court's decision to punish the designer Ilya Frishman, who kept humorous videos on his social network page, which used the swastika - a parody of the colorized "Seventeen moments of spring" from the First Channel show "Big Difference" and dubbed fragments from the film "Bunker". Since the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs do not agreed with the opinion of the prosecutor and Frishman himself, the regional court appointed video review.

Developed in May and application of the "Klishas law" on the prohibition of distribution on the Internet information expressing disrespect for society and the state.

In the middle of the month in Yaroslavl was fined 30 thousand rubles under Part 3 of Art. 20.1 Administrative Code Kirill Poputnikov, who posted a photo of the building on Facebook Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on which an inscription insulting Vladimir Putin was applied (in April for distributing this photo, they were included in the Unified Register of Banned Sites two Yaroslavl news resources). In the village of Verkhovazhye, Vologda Oblast, a protocol was drawn up under the same article in relation to a local resident Yuri Shadrin, who set the status "Putin d****** is real" on VKontakte, and not fabulous."

At the end of the month, a protocol under the same article was drawn up in regarding Aleksey Navalny's associate Leonid Volkov, who posted a tweet with reference to the recording of the announcement of the decision in the case of Yuri Kartyzhev, punished for the phrase "Putin is a fabulous d ******", and quoted himself it is an insult. In early June, the court returned Volkov's case materials to the police for elimination of shortcomings. In Smolensk, a protocol was drawn up regarding Sergei Komandirov, who posted a comment with the text "Check - they won’t sue, “the gut is thin”, they won’t judge everyone. So go flashmobit" and an image of Putin containing obscene language signed "Every citizen knows who ... No. 1."

Persecution of religious organizations and believers

As it became known to us in May, Laishevsky the district court of the Republic of Tatarstan began to consider the case on recognition extremist six Islamic religious books - three volumes of "Explanations Holy Quran" by Abdurrahman ibn Nasir al-Saadi translated by Elmir Kuliev and three collections of hadiths: "Sahih al-Bukhari" in a summary of al-Zubaidi, "Gardens of the Righteous" an-Nawawi and "Bulyug al-Maram" al-Asqalani. From our point of view, attempts to ban collections of hadiths, including including an abridged version of the most authoritative collection "Sahih al-Bukhari" are an obvious delusion of the authorities, discrediting them in the eyes of Muslims. Not applicable to medieval Islamic literature today's ideas about tolerance, as it describes the era religious wars and attitudes from that era, and topics such as jihad (including including and in the sense of waging a war for faith), a cruel medieval system punishment or hostility towards "non-Muslims, Jews and Christians" form an integral part of this literature. Translations and comments to all three collections of hadiths, from our point of view, are quite neutral in character and also cannot serve as a basis for recognizing these publications as extremist. Tafsir al-Saadi, written in the first half of the 20th century, contains repeatedly repeated direct calls for an aggressive war against the Gentiles, however, the question arises whether such appeals are centuries old grounds for contemporary publishers of religious literature refused to publish an authoritative interpretation of the Qur'an. We believe that the existence of the current material ban mechanism, which does not allow take into account the purpose and context of the publication, is unjustified: it is not necessary to fight against materials themselves, but with the actions of propagandists who use the most various tools, including religious literature, to justify xenophobic violence in the modern world.

As we learned at the beginning of the month, back in April in Novy Urengoy (YaNAO) a criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Art. 205.2 UK (justification of terrorism on the Internet) in relation to the creator and main editor of the portal "Voice of Islam" Dmitry Chernomorchenko. occasion served as the publication on December 13, 2016 on the website "Voice of Islam" article "Aleppo fell: lessons and conclusions". Grounds for initiating a case was the conclusion of one of the experts, who found signs of justifying the activity banned "Islamic State" in the words of the author that it makes no sense to blame this organization for the fall of Aleppo, since during the fighting actions, the ISIS actually supported with Assad "an unspoken truce". From our point of view, such an interpretation is difficult to consider justified, especially since in the article the author criticizes all sides of the conflict, in including ISIS, and does not call for violence, let alone terrorism.

In May we received new information about the persecution of the followers of the Turkish Islamic theologian Said Nursi in Siberia and the Far East. Denis Zhukov, a citizen of Krasnoyarsk, was charged again, accused under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 CC (participation in the activities of an extremist organization). Previously, his case was returned investigator prosecutor. Meanwhile, the case of Yevgeny Sukharev, charged under the same article, the Sharypovsky District Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory back in February returned prosecutor.

IN Khabarovsk, sanctions in the form of a fine and expulsion from Russia were imposed under Part 1.1 of Art. 18.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (violation by a stateless person regime of stay, expressed in the absence of documents confirming the right for stay) on those released from the colony Nursi's follower Yevgeny Kim, previously convicted under Part 1 of Art. 282.2 CC (organization of the activities of an extremist organization) and Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code. Bye he was imprisoned, the internal affairs authorities invalidated the decision taken in 2005 to grant him citizenship of the Russian Federation. Opportunity thus deprive the citizenship of people convicted under a number of articles extremist and terrorist orientations (including under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code), appeared in 2017. Thus, Kim was left stateless; By As of the end of May, he was awaiting deportation to Uzbekistan (where he was born).

At the end of the month it became known that the Orenburg regional court toughens sentence for 10 followers of Islamic movement "Tablighi Jamaat", which were given real terms of punishment for hh. 1 and 2 Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code. Alexander Shudobaev, sentenced to six half years in prison, expanded the wording of the three-year ban on work in religious organizations. Conditions were tightened for all ten additional punishment - in the form of restriction of freedom: they were forbidden to leave place of residence from 22 pm to 6 am. Religious Association Tablighi Jamaat was banned in Russia in 2009. The movement was engaged in the propaganda of Islam and was not seen in any calls to violence, therefore we consider its prohibition and persecution of its supporters unjustified.

Late April - early May in Smolensk in a new case initiated under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code, four Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested. Court in the middle of the month sent two more women to jail on similar charges. in Volgograd were four more believers were arrested. In the case of the continuation of the activities of the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Ulyanovsk, a new accused appeared (a measure was chosen for him suppression in the form of a ban on certain actions). Three at the end of the month Jehovah's Witnesses from Rostov-on-Don were taken into custody under a new criminal case. The third criminal case on the activities of the Witnesses Jehovah was initiated in Kirov.

Meanwhile, in May, the investigation into the cases of Jehovah's Witnesses was completed. Alexander Solovyov (Perm), Sergey Klimov (Tomsk), Viktor Trofimov and Roman Markin (Polyarny, Arkhangelsk region). Judgment on Dennis Christensen, convicted in Orel for organizing the activities of an extremist organization, the regional court upheld.

The total number of Jehovah's Witnesses prosecuted in Russia in criminal order, in May exceeded 200 people.

In addition, we learned that back in March, under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses was a Jehovah's Witness from Karachay-Cherkessia was fined.

Let us recall that the decision to recognize the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and 395 local extremist organizations was accepted by the Supreme Court of Russia in April 2017, challenge it failed. We believe that this decision, which served as the basis for initiation of criminal cases against believers for the continuation of religious practice as for the continuation of the activities of extremist organizations, had no legal grounds, and we consider the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses a manifestation of religious discrimination.

At the end of May, the Samara Regional Court recognized religious group Alla-Ayat by an extremist organization. December 2018 under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for the distribution of the magazine "Zvezda Selena" was fined the leader of this religious group Natalia Shaikina. Community members reportedly continued to distribute magazines; furthermore, the religious group did not notify the Ministry of Justice of the start of its work. From our point of view, although the state may have reasons for prohibition of the Alla-Ayat communities and administrative and criminal persecution of their organizers, illegally as recognition as extremist materials of the issues of the magazine "Star of the Selena", and the recognition religious groups "Allya-Ayat" by extremist organizations. Despite to the fact that in the publication "Zvezda Selena" there are negative statements about world religions, it does not contain aggressive calls in against their followers, and propaganda of the superiority of adherents of one or another doctrine is characteristic of most religious movements and in itself should not serve as a basis for banning religious associations as extremist.

Persecution for anti-religious speech

At the end of May, in relation to the aforementioned resident Novocheboksarsk Ilnur Kamaldinov, a protocol was drawn up under Part 2 of Art. 5.26 Administrative Code (desecration of religious symbols or paraphernalia). The reason was memes posted in 2014 and 2016 and recently discovered by law enforcement bodies on his page in the social network "VKontakte" - photos of the patriarch Cyril with the signature "Thank you in the church you will not put" and a procession with with the caption "The psychiatric hospital is on the run, but under the supervision of orderlies." We We believe that posting crude atheistic pictures and texts online is itself should not be interpreted as desecration of objects of religious veneration, since the publication of pictures or photo collages does not imply any active actions with these objects. Note also that the concept "desecration" is not defined in the legislation.