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European Court of Human Rights awarded 10 thousand euros in compensation for moral damage to the head of the Karelian youth human rights group Maxim Efimov. He was forced to emigrate from Russia in connection with the initiation of a criminal case on extremism and incitement to religious hatred. The reason for the criminal prosecution of Efimov was the publication in the newspaper criticizing the Russian Orthodox Church.
The European Court found that the Russian authorities violated Efimov’s right to freedom of expression, as well as to freedom of assembly and association.
In April 2012, Maxim Efimov was accused of inciting religious hatred and humiliating the dignity of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and believers (Article 282 of the Criminal Code). This happened after the article “Karelia is tired of priests” appeared in the newspaper “Chas zero” published by Efimov in December 2011. In it, he sharply spoke about the close cooperation of the Karelian diocese with the republican authorities.
The publication, in particular, said that “in the capital of Karelia there is an increase in anti-church sentiments”, “the thinking part of society understands that the church is also a party in power”, that “the ROC, just like United Russia, is fooling the people with tales of how well we live, while rowing money for ourselves. ” The author accused the ROC of “sins” and argued that the strengthening of the role of the Orthodox Church in the country was associated with “total corruption, oligarchy and the unlimited power of the special services.” It also argued that churches are built at public expense, and the true attitude of people towards the church is reflected in graffiti: “pay and pray” and “Christ is dead.”
Efimov was threatened with involuntary hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital, in connection with which he left for Estonia, where he received political asylum. Meanwhile, in the Russian Federation, Efimov was added to the list of extremists and terrorists of Rosfinmonitoring and put on the international wanted list. In October 2013, the RF IC suspended the investigation of the criminal case in connection with the search for a suspect.
In connection with the Efimov case, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called all the critics of the church “spiritually sick and requiring spiritual healing.”
In 2014, the Karelian youth human rights group was liquidated by the decision of the Supreme Court of Karelia under the pretext that its founder was an accused of extremism. The representatives of the organization were not even summoned to court. The judgment was sent to them only on January 22, 2015, three days after the deadline for filing an appeal.
The decision of the European Court notes that the publication of the newspaper Hour Zero did not concern individual believers, did not call for discrimination and did not incite violence or intimidation. The court did not find defamation or false information in the article.
The ECHR emphasized that the Russian norms of law in the field of combating extremism do not correspond to the principles of the rule of law, since they assume the liquidation of NPOs only on the grounds that the investigator accused the founder of extremism.
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