In Kazan, the court dismissed the administrative case under the article on fake news

Judge Arina Federova terminated the administrative case against Salikh Fakhrutdinov under the article on fake news (part 9 of article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). This was reported by the human rights group "Agora" in its telegram channel "Legal Aid Headquarters. Coronavirus.

The case was dismissed due to lack of corpus delicti. On April 17, the Justice of the Peace of Court District No. 9 of Kazan found Fakhrutdinov guilty and fined him 30,000 rubles. On appeal, this decision was overturned.

The reason for initiating the case was Fakhrutdinov’s comment on his VKontakte page: he expressed doubts about the reliability of official data on the number of people infected with coronavirus in Tatarstan. In court, Fakhrutdinov explained that he simply expressed his point of view.

• Across Russia, police officers massively draw up protocols, initiate criminal cases and demand that access to content about the coronavirus be restricted in connection with the operation of the law prohibiting the dissemination of “knowingly false information”. According to the Agora international group, as of June 9, 2020, a total of 170 administrative cases were opened in Russia in 53 regions and 42 criminal cases in 24 regions of the country.