The court has returned the “LGBT propaganda” case (part 1 of article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences) against “Podpisnye Izdaniya” to the police. This was reported by Darya Lebedeva, head of the joint press service for St Petersburg.
On 10 April, law enforcement came to the bookshop for an inspection. They confiscated several dozen books mentioning LGBT topics. After the inspection, “Podpisnye Izdaniya” was given a list of 48 books to remove from the shop’s shelves.
The so-called “LGBT propaganda” was allegedly found in three books: “Everybody” by Olivia Laing, and Susan Sontag’s “On Women” and “Against Interpretation and Other Essays,” said Darya Lebedeva. “Podpisnye Izdaniya” disagreed with the protocol.
The case was sent to magistrate court section No. 203, which then referred it by jurisdiction to Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg. The court found procedural violations in the protocol.
“The case statement is incomplete. The protocol mentions witnesses and victims, but provides no data on them. Some copies of the submitted documents are not certified. The printed publications themselves are absent (and I would have liked to see them, really). So, the protocol is deficient,” wrote Lebedeva.
16 May—Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg on 15 May re-registered the administrative case of “LGBT propaganda” against “Podpisnye Izdaniya.” It is presumed to be the same case the court returned to the police on 12 May.
Asya Sokolova for OVD-Info
The adoption of the “LGBT propaganda” law marked not only widespread censorship but also intensified repression against LGBTQ people and the organisations that support them. With the designation of the “International LGBT Movement” as an “extremist organisation,” this pressure has increased once again.
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