The Kirovsky District Court of Irkutsk fined the leader of the local Falun Gong association, Nadezhda Lai, 12 thousand rubles under the article on participation in the activities of an “undesirable” organization (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code). A friend of hers told OVD-Info about this.
According to the security forces, Lai, a week before the picket she is charged with, which took place on October 29, agreed on the contents of the posters by telephone with one of the witnesses in the case. At the same time, her acquaintance noted, the details of the woman’s calls refuted the fact that she allegedly communicated with this man.
In addition, the same witness claimed that Lai allegedly asked to hold his poster and take some photographs in order to “support her American friends.” Another witness insisted that he saw how the man himself persuaded the Irkutsk woman to hold his poster until she saw “symbols similar to the name of one of the undesirable organizations, written with a significant error.” It said "European Falun Dafa Organization" instead of "European Falun Dafa Association."
On November 1, in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Irkutsk, security forces conducted searches at the homes of practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, including Nadezhda Lai. Afterwards, the woman and one of her daughters were taken to the department for combating extremism.
The search was preceded by a coordinated picket in support of Falun Gong followers persecuted in China. During the rally, SOVA reported , two unknown men invited Lai to take a photo with some posters, after which they left along with three Chinese citizens who were observing the picket. It later turned out that the posters mentioned organizations recognized as “undesirable” in Russia: “Friends of Falun Gong” and “European Falun Gong Organization” (we are talking about the “European Falun Dafa Association”).
- Falun Gong is a system of spiritual and physical cultivation developed by Li Hongzhi in the early 1990s in China. Falun Gong practitioners practice meditation through exercises to improve physical health and to achieve moral and spiritual purity. According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, followers of this movement are subject to massive persecution in China.
- Since 2015, according to Russian legislation , foreign or international organizations that, in the opinion of the authorities, pose a “threat to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, the defense capability of the country or the security of the state” can be recognized as “undesirable.” From 2021, organizations that cooperate with already recognized “undesirables” are also recognized as “undesirable.” Such organizations are prohibited from operating in the country, and a number of other restrictions are also imposed on them - for example, they are not allowed to distribute information materials in Russia. The decision on recognition is made by the Prosecutor General's Office in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As of August 2023, there are more than 100 undesirable organizations on the Ministry of Justice register .
- For participation in the activities of an “undesirable” organization, administrative liability is provided (Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, the maximum penalty is a fine of up to 15 thousand rubles for citizens), and with repeated participation, criminal liability (Part 1 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code, the maximum penalty is imprisonment for up to four years). Article 284.1 also applies to financing or organizing the activities of an “undesirable” organization, in which case the punishment can be up to five and six years in prison, respectively.
- Human rights organization Amnesty International called the "undesirable organizations" law a way to "vilify independent NGOs, deprive them of funding and impose harsh penalties on their members." The law, according to human rights activists, is used “to combat dissent and stifle freedom of expression and independent civil society organizations in Russia.” The UN Human Rights Committee recommended that Russia repeal or revise legislation on “undesirable organizations.”