On 21 September in Rostov-on-Don a sitting of the court was deciding about the legitimacy of Rostov region Prosecutor’s resolution issued in February of this year to caution Konstantin Baranov, chief of Rostov branch of the “Young Europe” NGO, because of inadmissibility of extremist actions.

This year in June Konstantin petitioned to the court to oblige the Prosecutor and to recall the caution about inadmissibility of extremist activities.
“I mentioned already that the caution limits the right to distribute information. The law on counteraction to extremist activities, according to which the Prosecutor issued the caution, already limits (prohibits, to be more precise) the distribution of the materials, which are recognized as extremist. This requires court ruling. Our brochure has not been recognized as extremist, so the Prosecutor’s recommendation to limit its distribution is not based on the law and it violates my right to distribute information. The data in the brochure was public at the date of its publishing, and was taken from public sources,” said Konstantin.
However, the judge of the Lenin Court, Nadezhda Zusikova, decided that the Prosecutor’s caution is not violating Konstantin’s rights and agreed on the resolution that the caution does no set any limits to Baranov and does not violate his legal rights and interests. Besides, the caution would not contradict the law. And therefore, it could not be challenged.
A representative of Rostov region Committee for Relations with Political Parties and NGOs was present at the sitting of the court, as well as journalists, which, in the activist’s opinion, indicates high public interest to the case.
Konstantin thinks, he may submit an appeal on the court’s decision.

Lidia Mikhalchenko

Source: “Kavkaz Knot”