The Supreme Court has declared LGBT people an “extremist organization.” This will allow activists to be imprisoned for 10 years

The Supreme Court upheld the claim of the Ministry of Justice to recognize the “International LGBT Social Movement” as extremist. Now authorities will be able to imprison people for participating in the work and financing of LGBT organizations, for providing services for them, and even for disseminating information about the LGBT movement.

Details . The meeting was held behind closed doors; press representatives were only allowed in to hear the decision being announced. There was no “defendant” at the meeting: only representatives of the Ministry of Justice took part in it. four hours to consider the claim It took . The reasoning part of the decision will not be published, since the case is classified as “secret”. The decision comes into force immediately, writes Mediazona.

• It will be impossible to challenge this decision, because such an organization does not exist, which means there is no defendant, lawyer Alexandra Baeva told the Agency. “There is no legal entity, no director, no officers, no one who could represent it.
• After LGBT is recognized as an “extremist organization,” the legal work of organizations helping the LGBT community will become impossible in Russia. Courts will be able to send people to prison for participation in the activities of LGBT organizations, posts in support of them, and publication of LGBT symbols. There may also be a threat to ordinary LGBT people in Russia, some experts say. Read more about this here .

Context . The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to recognize the LGBT International Social Movement as extremist on November 17. Such a movement does not exist because there was no decision on its creation, there are no statutory documents and structure.

• To protect their interests, activists began registering the legal entity “International LGBT Social Movement.” This, as the founders of the organization explained, should allow them to participate in the process. However, the Supreme Court refused to allow them to participate in the hearing.
• After the news appeared about the filing of a lawsuit by the Ministry of Justice, human rights activists helping LGBT people faced a sharp increase in the number of requests from Russians wanting to leave the country, wrote the Agency . Experts are confident that after the claim is satisfied, the flow of people leaving Russia will only increase.