Russia : Dmitry Medvedev's anti-terror bill slammed

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposed bill on toughening punishment for terrorists and their supporters has drawn flak from the rights activists and prominent lawmakers who have expressed fears that it might be applied to those who had no intention of aiding terrorism.

The bill was recently submitted to the State Duma (Lower House) and its opponents fear that if it is adopted without amendments, it might be applied to those who had no intention of aiding terrorism, Kommersant daily reported today.

"A Just Russia' party's lawmaker Gennady Gudkov said that the bill does not outline such term as "intent," which seems to him to be wrong.

"A person might be declared to be an accomplice of terrorists only if it is proved in a court that the person helped with intent to commit a terrorist act," Gudkov was quoted as saying by the daily.

Russian Human Rights Institute director Valentin Gefter said that anyone would be tried for anything under backing terrorism as he explained that under the proposal made by Medvedev there will not be a need to prove intent.

Currently, the Russian law says that abetting a crime is a deliberate joint participation of two or more persons in committing an intentional crime.

Following double deadly suicide bombings on two stations of Moscow metro in March and a string of attacks in Daghestan targeting police, Medvedev had called for harsher punishment saying that the people who "wash cloths or cook soup for the terrorists" should be punished as the backers of terrorism and for "aiding terrorists."

Kommersant noted that the term "aiding terrorists" could be misconstrued to mean giving accommodations to or feeding or washing the clothes of individuals who the purveyor of those particular services had no idea were terrorists at the time.

The opposition leaders have also called another government proposed bill cleared yesterday by the Federation Council (Upper House) a 'draconian law'.

It allows "preventive measures" by the Federal Security Service (FSB) against individuals and organisations allegedly committing extremist actions.

Speaker of the Upper House Sergei Mironov was the only person to vote against the bill giving FSB, one of three successors of Soviet KGB, the right to issue warnings to individuals and organisations.

Mironov, expressed confidence that the bill, which could be directed against political opposition, would have to be amended.

Rights' activist and chairperson of Presidential advisory council on promoting civil society Ella Panfilova, flaying the bill as restoration of Soviet-era KGB practices, expressed hope that Medvedev will refuse to sign it into law.