Number of people convicted of extremism grows threefold in Russia

In 2015, the Russian courts convicted 414 persons under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (extremism); the number is three times higher than in 2011 (137 persons).

This is reported by Gazeta.ru news website with reference to the report of the Center for Economic and Political Reforms (CEPR).

The majority of convicts is ordinary citizens whose cases were not interesting for the media.

Citing the statistics of the judicial department of the Supreme Court, the experts estimated that the number of people convicted under Part 1 of this article – “inciting hatred or enmity… committed with the use of the Internet” increased considerably.

According to the CEPR, 82 persons were convicted under Part 1 of the article in 2011 against 369 persons in 2015.

Among the main groups of people convicted of “extremism” are the nationalists, people who are not members of nationalist groups but were convicted of extremist slogans, religious extremists (mainly Islam followers).

Many “religious extremists” are members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization forbidden in the Russian Federation. This group also includes sentenced Jehovah’s witnesses, members of various Christian groups and atheists.

Another large group is pro-Ukrainian activists who had been convicted of harsh statements in support of Ukraine, condemnation of the Russian government’s actions in Crimea and Donbas.