In Yakutia, the court refused to fine a pensioner for reporting coronavirus

The Nyurbinsky District Court (Nyurba, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)) released local resident Natalia Fedorova from administrative responsibility under the article on fakes (part 9 of article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). An administrative case against a pensioner was opened due to messages about the coronavirus in the WhatsApp messenger. The corresponding decision was discovered by MBKh Media.

According to the court, Fedorova sent a message to one of the groups in the messenger stating “that the coronavirus infection was invented by the authorities in order to destroy the nation by irradiation from 5G towers.”

The judge concludes in the ruling:

Common Fedorova N.M. information is socially significant, since it concerns the entire nation, creates a threat of harm to the health of citizens, a threat of mass disruption of public order, as well as a threat of interfering with the functioning of communication facilities, and is obviously unreliable, since the above-mentioned regulatory legal acts have legally established the threat of proliferation in subject of the Russian Federation of a new coronavirus infection, and in the case file there is no information that exposure from towers with 5G characteristics threatens to destroy the nation, and in general about the installation of these towers

The court took into account that the pensioner pleaded guilty, had not previously been brought to administrative responsibility, had only a pension among her income, and also that the forwarding of the message “had no consequences.” Fedorova was released from administrative responsibility, the judge limited herself to an oral remark.

• Across Russia, the police massively drew up protocols, opened criminal cases and demanded 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 Human Rights 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.