Russian Activist Gets Two-Year Sentence for ‘Calls to Extremism’ on Social
Networks
Global Voices, December 21, 2015 15:13 GMT
https://globalvoices.org/2015/12/21/russian-activist-gets-two-year-sentence-for-calls-to-extremism-on-social-networks/?utm_source=Global+Voices&utm_campaign=cbfe39fc53-Dec+22_2015_Daily_Digest_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_633e82444a-cbfe39fc53-290270321
A Krasnodar district court has found activist Darya Polyudova guilty of
"public calls to separatism and extremism" on social media and has sentenced
her to two years in a penal colony.
Prosecution earlier asked that Polyudova receive a 3.5-year term, according
to an Ovdinfo.org report.
Earlier, Polyudova was charged with public calls to activity aimed at
disrupting the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation (under a new
article 280.1 of the Russian criminal code, added in 2014), as well as with
calls to extremism (parts 1 and 1 of article 280 of the criminal code),
including such calls on social networks.
On April 4, 2014 Polyudova went on a single-person picket with a banner that
said "Not war with Ukraine, but revolution in Russia! Not war, but
revolution!" and later posted a photo of herself with the banner on her
VKontakte profile page. On July 16, Polyudova reposted a text on her VK page
that contained the words "People, wake up!.. Why can't we remove Putin, and
then create a socialist revolution?!!! Enough sleeping! Time to go out to
the square and topple this regime!" Polyudova herself says she only reposted
others’ words and provided no comments of her own.
On August 5, 2014 she posted another text on VKontakte calling "to fight
Putin with his own weapons" and mentioning the Russian Kuban region as a
historically ethnic Ukrainian territory.
A criminal case against Polyudova was launched in August 2014, after she
took part in the "Kuban Federalization March" protest rally. But law
enforcement, as it turns out, took issue with Polyudova's social media posts
about the fate of ethnic Ukrainians in the Kuban region. The extremism
charges were added on later, and Polyudova was formally charged in January
2015.
The Krasnodar activist spent six months in pre-trial detention starting in
September 2014, and was released in February 2015 under a travel ban. She
has also previously received administrative penalties for other social media
posts.
Human rights advocate Pavel Chikov called Polyudova a political prisoner and
said her verdict was part of a trend of harsher sentences against dissenters
in Russia that began with Ildar Dadin, who was recently sentenced to three
years behind bars for unsanctioned protests.
-- Pavel Chikov (@pchikov) December 21, 2015
"The court sent Darya Polyudova to a penal colony for two years. Another
political prisoner in Russia."
-- Pavel Chikov (@pchikov) December 21, 2015
The new articles in the criminal code are getting real prison sentences in
the first verdicts. Dadin and Polyudova.
Before the verdict was announced, Polyudova herself told a Radio Liberty
reporter that she did not expect to be acquitted and was not afraid of going
to prison.
