Harassment of anarchist continues

Human rights defenders received information about a series of warning issued to activists of the anarchist movement. The activists were warned against violation of Art. 10 of the Law “On Counteracting Extremism”.

As it became known, after a raid on a punk concert on January 10 and the arrest of some of its participants on January 12, several activists have been visited by police officers who invited them to the police departments. During these “conversations”, they receive official warnings against ongoing violation of the Act.

However, it should be noted that according to Art. 10 of the Law, an official warning is issued to “the founder (participant), head, other officer of the organization’s governing body, individual entrepreneur, founder of the media, another citizen with evidence of preparation to commit actions under Part 1 of Article 1 of this Act”. It is Article 1 that provides a definition of extremism and extremist activity.

However, at the moment there is no reason to warn the activists who have not previously been prosecuted for “extremism”, or suspect them of committing such actions in the future.

We have already reported similar challenges against the activists, but they can be related to the targeted pressure on the active youth, and by an order coming from above.