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Kommersant
The members of the Council under RF President on development of civil society and human rights (HRC) has prepared critical comments on the anti-terrorism package of laws (the so-called “Spring package”). At the conclusion of the project, a copy of which is available on TASS, indicated that the number of regulations imposed by this law, “creates opportunities for arbitrariness and abuse in the imposition of liability.”
In particular, such a definition, the members of the Council used in relation to the article of the criminal code “failure to report a crime.”
“Liability for non-notification to the competent authorities about known preparing or committed crime not is based on clearly defined elements of a crime from the point of view, neither the objective nor the subjective side. It is not clear why and how a person must determine the appropriate body for the message; it is impossible to describe, and therefore to determine when recognized known preparing or committed crime, what should be the degree of certainty that the obligation to report was considered outstanding,” the document reads.
The adoption of a rule to extend the “24 hours to three days deadline for notifying the investigator of the judge and the Prosecutor for investigative actions if, given the urgency of these actions, such a sanction has not previously been received”, according to a group of members of the Council, contrary to the Constitution.
“The increase of the period of notice the court and Prosecutor about their unauthorized investigation is in direct violation of part 2 of article 55 of the Russian Constitution, which prohibits the adoption of laws abolishing or diminishing the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, the achieved level of assurance which cannot be reduced, and the restrictions permissible under Federal law, can’t aim to avoid judicial control over the observance of rights and freedoms”, – explained in the conclusion of the project.
It also notes that the statutory “storing the entire data volume on the communications of citizens, and within six months, and the content of these communications can be used to investigate not only terrorist crimes, but also any other cases, that is, this innovation represents an unprecedented attack on the privacy of citizens.”
In addition, the draft conclusion of the HRC refers to fuzzy wording of the law concerning the regulation of missionary activity. “It is unclear how the administrative process can be established, there was a particular conversation “in order to involve” a religious Association or simply an ideological debate. Existing law enforcement practice has confirmed that the administrative responsibility arbitrarily attracted people clearly have not committed any socially dangerous acts”, – the document says.
The package of anti-terrorist laws from 1 July 2018 obliges the Telecom operators for three years to store data on the facts of reception, transmission, delivery and processing of voice information and text messages, images, sounds and videos. The most “heavy” content such as images, sounds and video – operators should keep 6 months. All of this information will also need to provide at the request of the security services.