The Kalininsky District Court of St. Petersburg dismissed the administrative case under the article on participation in the activities of an “undesirable organization” (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code) against the publication “Falun Dafa Information Center” due to the lack of an offense. This was reported by the joint press service of the city courts.
The case was reconsidered after the St. Petersburg City Court overturned the lower court's ruling on appeal.
Initially, in November 2023, the Kalininsky District Court fined the Falun Dafa Information Center 50 thousand rubles. According to police, in August, materials on the site mentioned Falun Gong-related organizations considered “undesirable” in Russia, including the American Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting. In the “How can I help” section, security forces found an offer to join the “Friends of Falun Gong” organization, which was also recognized as “undesirable,” and a link to the organization’s website. Currently there are no links or similar wording on the site.
- 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. On July 17, 2020, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office recognized seven organizations associated with Falun Gong as “undesirable”