Barnaul resident arrested for humiliating the dignity of government officials

Roman Shklover brought to justice under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

On October 11, 2022, the Leninsky District Court of Barnaul appointed 10 days of arrest under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (incitement of hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity) to Roman Shklover.

The court decision says that Shklover posted a video on YouTube with statements "expressed in an offensive form against police officers and civil servants, which indicates the humiliation of their dignity on the basis of belonging to the power structure."

Since Shklover did not call for violence against the police and civil servants, but only criticized them in a rude manner, in our opinion, he should not have been prosecuted. in 2011 The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation pointed out back that media criticism of officials should not in itself be considered as an act aimed at humiliating dignity, since the limits of permissible criticism of officials are wider than those of private individuals; from our point of view, this argument applies not only to publications in the media. Likewise, law enforcement officers, as repeatedly noted the European Court of Human Rights has , must be extremely tolerant of criticism, if it is not a real threat of violence. It should be noted that the SOVA Center generally advocates the exclusion of the possibility of prosecution for inciting hatred on the basis of belonging to any social group, since only a few social groups are particularly vulnerable (for example, people with disabilities or the homeless) and need special protection from manifestations of hatred - and they could be listed in the legislation, while the rest do not need such protection, they can resort to the help of other norms, depending on the situation.

Sources

• Decision in the case of an administrative offense No. 5-915/2022 dated October 11, 2022 // Leninsky District Court of Barnaul. 2022. November.