Legal aspects of liability for Holocaust denial in Russia (through the prism of Roman Yushkov case)

Abstract

The article expounds upon the issue of Holocaust denial and freedom of expression in the context of Roman Yushkov Case, who posted a link on his social network page to the article claiming that the number of victims of the Holocaust is greatly exaggerated and well below six million. Roman Yushkov’s was charged under Art. 281 Part 1 and Art. 3541 Part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code. A Jury acquitted him, having considered the arguments provided by the defence about Yushkov’s intentions only to stimulate a public debate about the number of the Holocaust victims by his publications. The Supreme Court upheld this decision. In this paper will examine the history and development of Holocaust denial, will examine Holocaust and other genocides laws globally. The author describe how the trend of the revisionism. Revisionism is an academic approach that recognizes that traditional narratives of history may not be entirely accurate and should be reviewed and revised as new information comes to the surface. At the national level have enacted a variety of laws, ranging the criminalize Holocaust denial and other genocides, Nazi ideology promoted through speech, symbols or public association or can be used to prosecute individuals who deny the Holocaust. These laws are intended to prevent the return any public reemergence of Nazi views. There are now essentially four types of regimes in this domain, in terms of scope of the offence of genocide denial. Most nations of the European Union (as well as Israel and Russian Federation) criminalize Holocaust denial. Despite the threat of criminal prosecution, however, Holocaust denial have taken on a cult-like following of their own on the internet. The article concludes about the contradictory of Russian law enforcement practice, Russian judicial system drawbacks, as well the system preparation of representatives of the legal profession.