“Found at the request of my grandmother”: a resident of Bashkortostan was fined for the film “Miracles of the Koran” on the social network

A court in Bashkortostan fined a 26-year-old resident of the republic under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for a film prohibited, from our point of view, unlawfully.

On April 16, 2020, the Abzelilovsky District Court of Bashkortostan fined 1.5 thousand rubles under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass distribution of extremist materials) of 26-year-old Aigiz Asylguzhin.

It follows from the court ruling that the film "Miracles of the Koran" was found on Asylguzhin's page on the VKontakte social network, which in 2011 was recognized as extremist material. The resident of the republic himself told the court that his grandmother asked him to find and show this film a few years ago, while he was "automatically added" to the list of videos on his page on VKontakte. He also stated that the videos were available only to his friends, he did not know about the ban on the film "Miracles of the Koran" and deleted it after he gave explanations to the prosecutor's office.

According to the prosecutor's office of Bashkortostan, Asylguzhin was also warned about the inadmissibility of violating the law on countering extremist activity.

From our point of view, the film "Miracles of the Koran" (item 873 of the Federal List of Extremist Materials) was illegally recognized as extremist (our position is described in more detail here ). Accordingly, the persecution of Asylguzhin is also unlawful.

Sources

• RESIDENT OF ABZELILOVSKY DISTRICT FINED FOR PUBLISHING EXTREMISM MATERIAL ON A SOCIAL NETWORK // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bashkortostan. April 17, 2020
• Case card No. 5-37/2020 // Website of the Abzelilovsky District Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan. April 21, 2020