The ECHR awarded ten thousand euros to a Karelian human rights activist

The European Court of Human Rights has awarded 10,000 euros to Karelian human rights activist Maxim Yefimov in a case of inciting religious hatred. This was reported to on the website of the court, attention was paid the telegram channel "Network Freedoms".

According to the decision of the European Court, Russian law enforcement agencies violated Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms.

The decision is related to a criminal case on inciting hatred or enmity (part 1 of article 282 of the Criminal Code). In December 2011, Efimov published the material “Karelia is tired of priests” on the website of the “Youth Human Rights Group”, in which he pointed out the close cooperation of the Karelian diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with the republican authorities. In the article, Efimov noted that in Petrozavodsk "there is an increase in anti-church sentiment." He called the church another "party of power" and mentioned "total corruption, oligarchy and omnipotence of the secret services" in it.

After initiating a criminal case, Yefimov left for Estonia, where he received the status of a political refugee. In Russia, he was put on the federal wanted list.

• The “Youth Human Rights Group”, where the human rights activist was the leader, was liquidated in 2014 by the Supreme Court of Karelia due to the fact that its founder was a citizen accused of extremism, and included in the list of extremist organizations, despite the fact that decisions on recognizing this organization as extremist did not have.