Russia Broadens Definition of Treason

October 24th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Russia Broadens Definition of Treason

October 24th, 2012

Russia has broadened its definition of treason, in a move prompting fears that state authorities will have a new weapon to clamp down on the press and non-governmental organisations.

The law was passed on Tuesday by the lower house of parliament, one of several pieces of legislation overseen by President Vladimir Putin and seemingly designed to clamp down on political opposition.

The changes and additions to an existing law on state secrets will make it illegal not only to pass on state secrets but also to receive, transmit or publicise them.

â€œIt is a very worrying situation, you could become a traitor or a spy without even knowing it,â€� said Igor Kolyapin, head of the Nizhny Novgorod-based Committee Against Torture.

â€œAnyone who does not have access to state secrets does not, by definition, know what is secret and what isnâ€™t. How thus can they thus be understood to carry responsibility for this?â€�

The legislation strengthens an existing treason law and makes it a crime to divulge sensitive information not just to foreign governments, but to international organisations.

It also makes it easier to prosecute treason cases â€“ formerly prosecutors had to show â€œhostile intentâ€�, but that has been substituted for easier to prove criteria where they merely have to show a threat to state security.

Under the new legal definition, someone providing the European Court of Human Rights information on abuses in Russia, for example, could be prosecuted for revealing state secrets, said Pavel Chikov, head of Agora, the human rights group.

â€œEven the transmission of information on election fraud could be construed as state treason,â€� he said.

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