Send a petition to the president of Russia to support Maxim Efimov

To the president of Russia V.Putin http://eng.letters.kremlin.ru/ Maxim Efimov is a chairman of the Karelian regional branch of the inter-regional youth social charity organization “Youth Human Rights Group (YHRG)” . The Karelian branch of YHRG implements human rights protection programs and supports civic initiatives, in particular youth-oriented projects. On 5 April 2012 the criminal case № 012012120035 against Maxim Efimov was opened by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Karelia for “actions aimed at the incitement of national, racial, or religious enmity, abasement of human dignity, and also propaganda of the exceptionality, superiority, or inferiority of individuals by reason of their attitude to religion, national, or racial affiliation, if these acts have been committed in public or with the use of mass media”, under Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Mr. Efimov was accused in insulting the religious group “ Orthodox Christians” after having published an article on the website of the Karelian branch of YHRG entitled 'Karelia is tired of priests' . Maxim Efimov has criticized the priests of the Orthodox Church, cooperating with the Federal Security Service (FSS) as well as those priests who deprive the citizens of their property. Mr. Efimov has always been a supporter of a secular state. Previously he has been the only person in Karelia who openly did not approve the decision of the local authorities to allocate budgetary funds of 15 million rubles for the construction of an Orthodox cathedral in Petrozavodsk and challenged the mentioned decision before the court afterwards. In his article “ Karelia is tired of priests” Maxim Efimov has compared the Church to the largest and leading political party “ Yedínaya Rossíya” (United Russia),criticized the unlimited power of intelligence services and oligarchs ,coalescence of the Church and the State, described priests as “bearded men wearing fancy dresses “, “secretaries for ideology” and “Orthodox spawn” . According to the Investigative Committee of Prosecutor Office, the author of the article deserves to be imprisoned up to 2 years or fined up to 300 000 rubles. It`s totally obvious that there are no crime components in Maxim Efimov’s actions as well as the criminal persecution of him is restricting the freedom of speech in breach of Article 10 of European Convention on Human Rights . On 10 April 2012 in the nighttime, a search of the private apartment of Maxim Efimov was carried out. During the search, the personal computer and other property of Maxim Efimov were seized. On 12 May 2012 Petrozavodsk City Court issued a decree to put Maxim Efimov to the mental hospital by force under the dubious psychiatric examination as well as because of the pressure of the Federal Security Service and the Investigative Committee . This move may be considered as a punitive psychiatry of the mentally healthy person. For this reason Maxim Efimov had to leave Karelia because he has faced the outrage of investigative bodies and courts. The Russian Federation violated the right of Maxim Efimov to a fair trial and fair investigation as well as the right to an effective remedy before a national authority in breach of Article 6 and Article 13 of European Convention on Human Rights . After the departure Maxim Efimov was declared to be in the federal wanted list . When Mr. Efimov applied for political asylum in the Republic of Estonia , the investigative bodies have requested to declare Maxim Efimov to be in the international wanted list and extradite him to the Russian Federation afterwards. After the Supreme Court of Karelia canceled the decision of the court about the forcible putting Maxim Efimov to the mental hospital and sent the case to be reissued , the criminal investigator has canceled his request and the criminal case has been closed. Later the criminal investigator has appealed the court again demanding to put Maxim Efimov to the mental hospital. We suppose that this dubious criminal persecution is linked with human rights and journalistic activities of Mr. Efimov and his harsh criticism of Karelian authorities . More than once Maxim Efimov has criticized the Karelian court for the violation of citizens’ constitutional right to replace a military service with an alternative civil one as well as for unfair judgments . Also Mr. Efimov has repeatedly criticized prosecutors , investigators , officers of justice, deputies ,senior officials of the Republic of Karelia in a very harsh way as well as he has informed about authorities and criminals coalescence , embezzlement of public funds, grave crimes of militiamen. We demand to stop the criminal persecution of Maxim Efimov as well as persons involved in this persecution to be punished according to Article 299 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Signature First name and surname , organization