Navalny's supporters from Arkhangelsk were sentenced to restriction of freedom

The court found Yegor Butakov and Elizaveta Bychkova guilty under Part 3 of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code.

On January 16, 2023, the Lomonosovsky District Court of Arkhangelsk found Yegor Butakov and Elizaveta Bychkova, former employees of the Arkhangelsk headquarters of Alexei Navalny, guilty under Part 3 of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code (participation in a non-profit organization whose activities are associated with inciting citizens to refuse to perform civic duties or to commit other illegal acts) and sentenced them to a year of restriction of freedom . In making its decision, the court took into account, as an aggravating circumstance, the presence in the actions of the accused of a motive of ideological and political hatred, as well as hatred against a social group of government representatives.

Earlier, the prosecutor asked to appoint the defendants a year of imprisonment on probation. The case was considered in a special order at the request of the defendants, who pleaded guilty and actively cooperated with the investigation.

Butakov and Bychkova were found guilty of having, as members of Navalny's headquarters, been involved in inciting citizens to participate in unsanctioned mass events, and they did so out of hatred. We consider this verdict unjustified. The manifestation of political or ideological hatred in itself is not criminalized, and we believe that it is appropriate to attribute this motive to aggravating circumstances only in articles on crimes that pose a serious public danger, namely, in articles on the use of violence. As for inciting hatred against government officials as a social group, from our point of view, they, unlike, for example, the homeless or the disabled, do not have the degree of vulnerability that requires special protection from manifestations of hatred. As early as June 28, 2011, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation emphasized that the permissible limits for criticism of officials are wider than the permissible limits for criticism of individuals. Let us also recall that we generally advocate the exclusion of the vague term "social group" from anti-extremist legislation.

The criminal case of Butakov became known in December 2021, when the former heads of the structures of Alexei Navalny's supporters in different regions were searched. Information about the persecution of Bychkova appeared in March 2022. Initially, both activists, in addition to Part 3 of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code, were charged with an article on the organization of an extremist community: Butakov - the leadership of such a community (part 1 of article 282.1 of the Criminal Code), and Bychkova - participation in it (part 2 of article 282.1 of the Criminal Code). Subsequently, charges under Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code were removed from both activists. As a preventive measure, Butakov was given a ban on certain actions, and Bychkova was ordered not to leave. Together with them, the Arkhangelsk activist Olga Shkolina was involved in the criminal case - she later left Russia.

On December 27, 2022, in a similar case, the court delivered a sentence against the former head of Navalny's Irkutsk headquarters, Zakhar Sarapulov, under Part 3 of Art. 239 of the Criminal Code, he was given a year of imprisonment on probation.

It should be noted that the structures of Alexei Navalny and his supporters - the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the Fund for the Protection of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) and Navalny's headquarters - were recognized as extremist organizations in the summer of 2021 (in our opinion, unlawfully ) . And since September 2021, the activities that Navalny’s structures carried out before this ban were considered by the Investigative Committee as the activities of an extremist community: then the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee opened a case under Art. 282.1 of the Criminal Code in relation to Navalny himself and a number of his supporters (for more information about our position on this case, see here ). Then this case was merged with others: on money laundering (clause "b" part 4 of article 174 of the Criminal Code), the creation of a non-profit organization whose activities are associated with inciting citizens to commit illegal acts (part 2 of article 239 of the Criminal Code) , on the financing of extremism (part 1 of article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). Subsequently, the defendants in cases under Art. 282.1 and 239 of the Criminal Code became two dozen regional activists who previously participated in Navalny's structures.

Sources

• The Lomonosovsky District Court of Arkhangelsk begins consideration of a criminal case against the former coordinators of the local headquarters of Navalny // SOTA. 2023. January 16.
• The case of ex-coordinators of Navalny's headquarters in Arkhangelsk Butakov and Bychkova will be considered in a special order // SOTA. 2023/ 16 January.
• Former coordinators of Navalny's headquarters in Arkhangelsk, Yegor Butakov and Elizaveta Bychkova, were sentenced to a year of restriction of freedom // SOTA. 2023. January 16.