Tomsk: verdict under Art. 280 Criminal Code

Artyom Karpilyansky was sentenced to one and a half years in a colony-settlement.

On December 20, 2019, in Tomsk, the Sovetsky District Court found local businessman Artyom Karpilyansky guilty under Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremism on the Internet) and sentenced him to one and a half years in a colony-settlement.

According to media reports, the reason for initiating the case was the comments that Karpilyansky left on VKontakte under the posts "about corruption in the local prosecutor's office and Chinese expansion . " In particular, they contained "calls for extremist activity in relation to government officials, Chinese, natives of the North Caucasus and Central Asia" .

The entrepreneur does not admit his guilt, the defense intends to appeal the verdict.

Recall that the SOVA Center believes that law enforcement officers are not among the vulnerable social groups requiring protection from anti-extremist legislation. In addition, they are protected by other articles of the Criminal Code. Sources

• Case card No. 1-402/2019 // Soviet District Court of Tomsk. 2019. December 20.
• In Tomsk, a local resident was sentenced to a year and a half in prison because of a comment on VKontakte // OVD-Info. 2019. December 23.