Blogger sentenced to one year suspended imprisonment

The lawyers of blogger Savva Terentyev filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic on the decision of the Court of First Instance. Mr. Terentyev spoke of this on 14 July at a press conference in Moscow. (25-JULY-08)

Written by Maria Paramonova/HRH Moscow

Links: http://hro1.org/node/2758; http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/290037.html; http://komionline.ru/news/8565; http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=27848; http://www.hrw.ru/russian/docs/2008/07/14/russia19370.htm; http://hro1.org/node/2922; http://www.interfax.ru/society/txt.asp?id=21619
Photo of the judge: http://www.novayagazeta.ru ;
photo of Terentyev: http://hro1.org ;
photo of Sajin: http://hro1.org

The Court Verdict
Savva Terentyev, a musician by profession, was convicted under article 282 of the Criminal Code for inciting hatred against a social group through the Internet, and this group is considered to be law enforcement officers. (Photo: the Judge of the case, Lubov Sukhareva)

History
On 15 February 2007, he left a comment under the nickname “terentyev” on the text of a local journalist Boris Suranov in Live journal (www.suranov.livejournal.com). There was a message from local human rights defenders about a search conducted at the newspaper “Zyryanskaya Jizn” (Zyryanskaya life). In response to this information, a branch of discussion grew regarding the elections in the republic, infringements against opposition media, as well as activities of the police who, in his comment, Savva Terentyev called to burn in the squares of the Russian cities.

Three linguistic expert examinations gave different conclusions
The third examination became decisive in the case, insofar as a brake was declared in the process for the sake of carrying out it. Scholars from Syktyvkar, chosen by the city Procurator, have been assigned with conducting the examination that was set up at the request of the city procurator. The main task given to the experts was the “determination of Terentyev’s comment on the blog for the purpose of stirring up social discord”.

One of the earlier linguistic examinations in the case noted that the musician’s commentary did not contain calls to incite social enmity, it was just an opinion. The second examination, conducted by staff from the Scientific Center of the Komi Republic, Ural Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, found that Terentyev’s comment “aimed to stir up hatred and enmity, as well as humiliate a group of people belonging to a social group, committed publicly, using mass-media”.

Comment from lawyers
The defense considered that Terentyev’s action, who admitted his authorship of this commentary, which is the basis of the case, was not a crime. A lawyer defended the position that the comment was taken out of the context and was part of a discussion which has public importance: namely – about abuses in law enforcement bodies. In this regard, lawyers believed that the criminal prosecution of Terentyev should be stopped.

At the same time, the defense requested a preliminary hearing in this case to submit claims to court about a number of violations of the criminal procedure legislation by the investigating authorities. According to the lawyer Oksana Zhevnerova, Russian law stipulates that a prosecution can not consist of evidence obtained from breaking the law. “In this case the basis for prosecution is made by an additional examination, which was received with a many violations”, – she said.

Doubts have been raised by the defense on the qualifications of the experts. According to the lawyer Vladislav Kosnyreva, the examination is a legal interpretation of the positions of article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and contains findings on whether there are signs of a corpus delicti in the commentary of Mr. Terentyev. “That is an inquest commissioned essentially for two historians, one philosopher and a philologist to make one interpretation of the law and draw conclusions that are within the competence of the investigator, Prosecutor or the Court”, – he said. Since the decision of the examination is not based on the views of the lawyers, “this evidence can not be seen as the basis for prosecution and it can not be invoked”, he added.

Human Rights Defenders comments
Human rights defenders criticized the decision of the new examination in Terentyev’s case even before the sentencing, noting that, for example, the experts for some reason used an unscientific interpretation of the concepts of “hatred” and “manipulation of public opinion.” Particular bewilderment was caused by the fact that in the accusation there appears the concept of “social group”, which is a scientific concept, on which scientists still have debates, and not a legal concept, which is why the concept of “social group” can not be used in the Court.

Memorial
The Committee Chairman of Memorial, Igor Sazhin (photo) , believes that “to resolve the case of Savva Terentiev the Strasbourg Court decision on the case “Torgerson vs. Iceland” should be used instead of a confusing decision from bad experts. In 1983, Icelandic writer Torger Torgerson in two of his articles called the police wild animals in uniform, as well as livestock and Sadists. The National Court sentenced him with a fine for insulting the police of Reykjavik, but the European Court of Human Rights did not agree “- said Sazhin. The European Court considered the statement as such: the language used in these articles cannot be regarded as excessive.

Human Rights Watch
The last bastion of freedom of speech in the Russian Federation remains the Internet but it too is threatened with serious danger, according to the verdict recently handed down to a blogger, – Matthew Schaaf of Human Rights Watch writes. Criticism of officials and officers which, in the opinion of the authorities is deemed unwanted or “sensitive”, is increasingly being suppressed through the blur of Russian legislation on countering extremism. Thus, over the past couple of years the authorities tried to “cover up” the site www.Ingushetia.ru associated with the Ingush opposition. In June 2008 a Moscow Court ruled that on the site based on the declaration of the Procurator which argued that the website published materials of extremist nature. Currently, the site has appealed the decision and continues to work, but is not known how long it will stay up.

International human rights organization “Reporters Without Borders” expressed concern about the verdict
“Reporters Without Borders deplores the one-year suspended prison sentence that a court in Syktyvkar, in the far-north Komi Republic, imposed on blogger Savva Terentyev on 7 July under article 282 of the criminal code for a blog post about the Russian police that allegedly “incited hatred and humiliated members of a social group.”

A 22-year-old musician resident in Syktyvkar, Terentyev posted his offending comment on journalist Boris Suranov’s blog on 15 February 2007. He wrote: “Those who become cops – rednecks and thugs – are the dumbest and least educated representatives of the live/animal world.””

Minister of the Interior Mr. Nurgaliev demands the Internet be recognized as mass media Meanwhile, following Terentyev’s sentencing Interior Minister Nurgaliev demanded tightening the responsibility of everyone “living” on the Internet. The head of the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs) proposed the other day to recognize the Internet as a type of media and criminalize the Internet propaganda of extremism and terrorism. Mr. Nurgaliev said that there is a lot of extremist materials, including methods of manufacturing bombs, and robbing banks and information networks on the Internet. In his opinion, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB and the Ministry of Justice must intensify work with the deputy corps to achieve a legislative ban on the distribution of subversive information over the Internet with all the ensuing consequences for those who put it on the WEB.