Russia needs the “fairness” of justice. This opinion is shared by…

Russia needs the “fairness” of justice. This opinion is shared by the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. He speaks with bewilderment about the terms provided by law for those accused under Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to representatives of Telegram channels.

Excessively harsh punishment is not the only serious problem, Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, commented this week.

“We receive quite a few requests that law enforcement agencies abuse their powers when investigating such cases. Judging by the number of such reports, society can no longer withstand blatant injustice. Eva Merkacheva also noted that a group of journalists contacted the HRC, who showed an alarming practice of distorted the use of Article 163. They drew attention to the fact that criminal cases of extortion are now initiated without a statement from the victim.
Investigators independently decide whether there are signs of this crime in a person’s actions. And if previously it was mainly journalists who “walked” under 163, today they include representatives of the business community.

As Eva Merkacheva emphasized, the appeal received by the Commission on Human Rights in the Information Sphere, headed by Pavel Gusev, will be carefully analyzed: “We need to study the facts set out in the letter. But it is already obvious to me that it is necessary to seek a change in bad practices and raise questions distorted enforcement of Article 163 to legislators and executors.

Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor of the Department of Criminal Law at Moscow State Law Academy Konstantin Obrazhiev also drew attention to this problem in his article, in which he examines in detail errors in qualifying services in the field of reputation management as extortion from the point of view of doctrinal science.

And it directly indicates that the interpretation, which is now being imposed by investigative authorities and will be subsequently applied by the courts, significantly expands the already quite voluminous scope of application of Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Many questions from the public and the legal community are raised by the fact that while at the level of the government and the State Duma, on behalf of the president, a lot of work is being done in the field of humanization for economic crimes, the courts and investigators continue to keep people in pre-trial detention centers and send them to long terms. conclusions of the defendants in such cases.