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Boris Stomakhin

Boris Vladimirovich Stomakhin (Russian: Борис Владимирович Стомахин), (born August 24, 1974, Moscow), is a Russian radical politician of Jewish origin, journalist, editor of Samizdat periodicals.

Journalism

Boris Stomakhin was an editor of monthly newspaper "Radical Politics" since 2000. Besides, he contributed numerous materials to Kavkaz Center, the Islamic internet agency that promotes independence of Chechnya and is maintained by Chechen rebels.

Political views

In his articles, Stomakhin claimed that modern Russia is Evil empire and therefore must be destroyed, called Russians a "nation of occupiers", and compared President Vladimir Putin to Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic. Stomakhin considered terrorists Shamil Basaev and Salman Raduev as heroes of Chechen resistance and claimed that terrorist acts committed by them are legitimate because Russian government conducts genocide of Chechen people.

Political career

Stomakhin organized a number of illegal picketes by his organization against Russian foreign policy in Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus, Chechnya. He also criticized Russian government in defamatory and obscene statements. He was a leader of radical political group "Revolutionary Contact Association" (RCA). Other members of this organization are Pavel Kantor, Dmitry Tarasov, Ludmila Evstifeeva, and Pavel Luzakov.

According to the Russian newspaper Utro Stomakhin's organization might be involved with Chechen hostage-takers, based on information provided by FSB. It alleged that during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, terrorists had "contacted with activists of Revolutionary Contact Association" and they "may be involved in supplying terrorists with ammunition and its storing at Moscow" However, these charges were not brought to the court.

Stomakhin was accused of the extremist activities, calls to violent change of Constitutional regime, calls to violate territorial integrity of Russian Federation, hate speech, inciting ethnic and religious hatred in his articles, which covered among other things, the Chechen conflict, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian nation. A case against him was opened in December 2003. His home was raided in April 2004 and his computers and books were confiscated for the expertise. Stomakhin was interrogated. Human Rights House alleged that prosecutors planned to declare him mentally ill and send him for treatment to Moscow Serbsky Institute where Pyotr Grigorenko and Viktor Nekipelov were treated in the past. Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia had conducted an independent unofficial expertise and found that he is perfectly normal. Official Psychiatric expertise at Moscow Serbsky Institute also found that Stomakhin is competent for the trial. Stomakhin escaped to the Ukraine seeking political asylum status, which was eventually denied.

Arrest and Trial

Having returned to Moscow, Stomakhin was arrested on March 21 2006. Stomakhin tried to escape during his arrest and fell down from fourth floor of his building. His spine and bones were broken as a result. . . According to Stomakhin's lawyer Alexei Golubev, "He has been kept in a cell all this time, despite the fact that he is practically paralyzed."

He was sentenced to five years of prison for the extremist activities, inciting religious and ethnic hatred, promoting violent change of constitutional regime, calls for violation of terriorial integrity of Russian Federation, defamatory statements(articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).

No one human rights organization or non-governmental organization sued the Russian Federation government for alleged by them abuses of Stomakhin, trial abuses or Stomakhin contention abuses.

Passages from Stomakhin's articles cited as incriminating evidence in the court sentence are the following:

When Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov raped and murdered young Chechen women Elza Kungaeva, Stomakhin allegedly wrote "Let tens of new Chechen snipers take their positions in the mountain ridges and the city ruins and let hundreds, thousands of aggressors fall under righteous bullets! No mercy! Death to the Russian occupiers!"
"We do not have any other family in the World except all oppressed nations of "our" Empire, except those who fight for liberation from this Empire as Shamil Basayev."
"Even Western community recognized that Russia is conducting a war to exterminate all Chehens as ethnic group".
"Moscow subway terrorist bombing was justified, natural and legal... The Chechens have every right to blow up anything in Russia after everything that Russia and Russians did to them." However, in this article Stomakhin actually claimed that the bombing was organized by Chechen FSB agents.
"Russian Federation must be destroyed forever. State that does such things to entire nations has no right to exist."
"Zelimkhan Yandarbiev died as a hero. He launched so many strikes to bloody Russia as he could".
Stomakhin claimed that Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Ivan Rybkin, and Irina Hakamada are "clowns" of Vladimir Putin .

Stomakhin pleaded not guilty, according to RIA Novosti, news agency, cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists. He said he was "tried for his views and not for any real crime. ... In the articles, I expressed my opinion, with which people were free to agree or disagree." He said an opinion was not a “call to action.”.

According to the official court sentence, Stomahin pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he never made public appeals for extremist activities, never called for violent change of the constitutional regime, and never incited ethnic hatred.

Public opinion

ARTICLE 19 international orgaization, which protects free speech, stated that "we do not believe Mr. Stomakhin’s comments can be interpreted as incitement to ethnic hatred."

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the court’s ruling and expressed hope that it would be overturned Stomakhin is currently one of two journalists imprisoned for their work in Russia, according to this organization .

"Putting people in prison for words is unfathomable.", said Boris Timoshenko of the Glasnost Defence Foundation, a member of International Freedom of Expression Exchange

Valeria Novodvorskaya, government opposition figure, leader of the Democratic Union, claimed that the prosecution of Stomakhin was the start of a wider campaign, "because together with him, the entire human rights sector and the entire democratic movement will be put on trial for disagreeing with the majority, for not accepting the state policy of the Russian Federation, for sympathizing with the Chechen people, for anti-war demonstrations and pickets."

Micah H. Naftalin, Director of Union of Councils for Soviet Jews said: "Bogus charges aimed at stifling dissent, cruel police tactics, ethnic bias, and blatant disregard for criminal procedural statutes are all on open display. We hope that others will join us in condemning this travesty of justice" . He explained: "This sentence exposes the underlying hypocrisy of the Russian government's half-hearted struggle against extremist groups and hate speech. This month alone, the FSB refused to investigate the distribution of a neo-Nazi hit list containing the names and addresses of human rights activists whom the authors 'sentenced to death,' a publisher of a newspaper in Ulyanovsk who publicly called for the murder of Jews got a suspended sentence, and three youths who broke the jaw and fractured the skull of the Minister of Culture of the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic while screaming racist slogans were sentenced to just six months to a year in prison. You don't have to agree with Mr. Stomakhin's radical, though non-violent, views on Chechnya to see that his sentence was disproportionate and unjust."

Sovied dissident Vladimir Bukovsky and others condemed the conviction of Stomakhin as prosecution of free speech. They noted that many famous Russian writers were very critical of Russian nation and cited Nikolai Chernyshevsky who said that Russians are "a pitiful nation of slaves. We are all slaves, from the top to the bottom "

Widow of Andrei Sakharov Elena Bonner stated that Stomakhin is not guilty in extremism and hate speech, and he is a victim of political prosecution like Soviet dissidents who were prosecuted for their writings by Yuri Andropov.

Former FSB officer, writer, and dissident Aleksander Litvinenko said that Stomakhin is "last conscience of Russia" .

Opposition figures like human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and politician Valeria Novodvorskaya argued that Stomakhin's writings while outrageous had not been a public threat: they were very unlikely to incite anybody. According to Gannushkina and Novodvorskaya the neofascists who posses a real threat usually receive only minimal sentences or no sentences at all. Thus, the five year prison term to Stomahin is extremely excessive .

Opposition journalist Vladimir Abarinov noted that Stomakhin has been convicted for publishing an article against Russian Orthodox Church that was actually taken from a Live Journal entry of a different person On trial no one disputed the authorship of the articles written by Stomakhin .

Critics of the court decision were censured by Russian publicist Maxim Sokolov in newspaper Izvestia. In the article published after the conviction of Stomakhin he argued that unlimited hate speech should be prosecuted according to the article 282 of the criminal code. He cited Stomakhin's article Death to Russia published on the website of the Revolutionary Contact Association . The article was written in response to murder of last elected president of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov by Russian forces. The Sokolov's citation of alleged Stomakhin's article contained the following passages: "Kill, Kill, Kill! To flood all Russia with blood, to not give a quarter to anyone, to try to make at least one atomic explosion on the territory of Russian Federation -- this is like the program of radical Resistance should be, and Russian's, and Chechen's, and anyone's! Let the Russians, according to their deserts, reap as they has sown" . According to Sokolov the cited passages made application of the article 282 completely appropriate, although the court sentence did not cite this article as a reason of Stomakhin conviction.

Other similar cases

All commentators including Maksim Sokolov agree that Stomakhin was convicted solely for his writings interpreted by the court as "hate speech". Therefore, he is a political prisoner just as Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel who have been convicted for their writings in the past.

References

^ Independent journalist given five-year sentence allegedly for inciting ethnic strife
Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
Press article Baraev's group was assisted by someone from Moscow
Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia
Prima News Agency report
NewsRu Agency report
Lenta.Ru Agency report
Regnum News Agency report
Grani News Agency report
Human Rights Activists Website of Valeria Novodvorskaya article
Center of Extremal Journalism article
RIAN News Agency investigation
RIAN News Agency news article
ARTICLE 19’S STATEMENT ON THE CONVICTION OF RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER EDITOR BORIS STOMAKHIN, 23 November 2006
^ Jewish Russian Telegraph, December 03, 2006.
KAVKAZ-CENTER WRITER APPEALS JAIL SENTENCE - by Jamestown Foundation
UCSJ Calls For Fair Trial of Russian Jewish Activist, statement of UCSJ November 9, 2006)
Jewish Activist Convicted in Russia, statement of UCSJ November 20, 2006
Open letter by Vladimir Bukovsky and others
Letter by Sannikova and Bonner.
Opinion of Aleksander Litvineko (Russian)
Conviction of Boris Stomakhin: Opinions (Russian) - by Anna Karpuk for grani.ru
Scapegoats - by Valeria Novodvorskaya for grani.ru
Second-hand fascism - by Valeria Novodvorskaya for grani.ru
Stomakhin Case - by Vladimir Abarinov for grani.ru.
Official Court Sentence on Russian language dated 20.11.2006
^ Maxim Sokolov Trap-282 Izvestia 23 November 2006
^ Boris Stomakhin article Death to Russia

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