Stavropol blogger's advocate asks to recognize article of Criminal Code as unconstitutional

The defence of Victor Krasnov, who is brought to trial in Stavropol for his online statements of antireligious nature, has sent an appeal to the Constitutional Court of Russia to recognize the article of the Criminal Code on insulting the feelings of believers as contrary to the Constitution of Russia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in autumn of 2014, in the course of a discussion on a social network, Victor Krasnov, a resident of the Stavropol Territory, published negative comments concerning the quotations from the Bible and, in particular, stated that "there was no God." Two online opponents of Victor Krasnov sued him in court and accused him of insulting their feelings (Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The complaint about the article on insulting the feelings of believers was submitted to the Constitutional Court by Andrei Sabinin, an advocate of Victor Krasnov.

According to the advocate, the current version of Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation violates the Russian Constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of expression (Article 29), since it does not define in any way the concept of "insult". "For example, some believers treat as an offense the very idea of the denial of religion and God," noted Andrei Sabinin.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.