Responsibility for extremism in Belarus: what threatens for the dissemination of illegal materials

Belarus has a law on countering extremism. Administrative and criminal liability is provided for the distribution of extremist materials, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti news agency reports.

Extremism is an activity directed against the independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and foundations of the constitutional order of the country.

Extremist materials are considered symbols, attributes and information products intended for involvement in extremist activities. They are recognized as such by court decision.

Punishment for distribution, production, storage and transportation of information products with calls to extremism or its propaganda is provided by Article 19.11 of the Administrative Code. For an individual – a fine of 10 to 30 basic values (BV), community service or administrative arrest up to 15 days. If the offender is an individual entrepreneur, he will have to pay from 50 to 100 BV. It will cost a legal entity even more – from 100 to 500 BV. In addition, the court has the right to confiscate the subject of the violation, as well as the tools and means with which it was committed.

It is important to remember that the page in the social network is equated with the media. Publication of extremist materials, as well as likes and reposts can turn into a case of an administrative offense. Do not forget about automatically saved files in Telegram and Viber – they can also become a reason for prosecution.

For a number of acts of an extremist nature, criminal liability is provided for under Article 361 of the Criminal Code. In particular, it threatens to create an extremist group or participate in it, finance extremist activities, participate in armed conflicts abroad, etc.

Extremist organizations are active online. Before you subscribe to any resource, research it and make sure it doesn’t carry destructive ideas.

The Republican list of extremist materials can be found on the website of the Ministry of Information. Now it includes more than 9 thousand objects.

In particular, in October, the republican list of extremist materials was replenished with the accounts of “Belarusian Students for Freedom” and the Facebook page of “Bast”. Extremist were also recognized as “Crazy Pakaranna ы Belarusi” and the page “Khatka – Belarusian cultural tavarism”. Gdansk" on Instagram.