(IsraelNN.com) The Prosecutor's Office of Moscow's Basmannyy district has concluded that the so-called “letter of 5,000” that caused a scandal earlier this year, contains no information likely to incite actions against any nationality, race, religion, and thus it is not anti-Semitic, Ekho Moskvy radio reported on June 10.
In January, a group of some 20 State Duma deputies filed an appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office, requesting a ban on all Jewish organizations on the grounds that they are extremists. Echoing anti-Semitic tracts from the tsarist era, the letter characterized “Judaic aggressiveness as a form of Satanism.” After the national and international uproar that ensued, the authors withdrew their letter and promised to revise it. The new version surfaced in March, first called “the letter of 500” and later “the letter of 5,000.”
“Izvestiya” pointed out that the text of the letter posted on the Rus Pravoslavnaya (Orthodox Russia) web site contains editorial corrections that an expert relied on by the Prosecutor’s Office found offensive, such as “fascist Jewish morals.” But even in this case, the investigator found no grounds for criminal prosecution.
Ekho Moskvy mentioned a similar ruling in St. Petersburg where the Prosecutor's Office, for a second time, turned down a lawsuit filed by local human rights activists against the authors of the letter. The ruling found nothing objectionable about the use of the word “Yid,” widely considered a pejorative term. (Bigotry Monitor -- UCSJ's weekly newsletter)
In January, a group of some 20 State Duma deputies filed an appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office, requesting a ban on all Jewish organizations on the grounds that they are extremists. Echoing anti-Semitic tracts from the tsarist era, the letter characterized “Judaic aggressiveness as a form of Satanism.” After the national and international uproar that ensued, the authors withdrew their letter and promised to revise it. The new version surfaced in March, first called “the letter of 500” and later “the letter of 5,000.”
“Izvestiya” pointed out that the text of the letter posted on the Rus Pravoslavnaya (Orthodox Russia) web site contains editorial corrections that an expert relied on by the Prosecutor’s Office found offensive, such as “fascist Jewish morals.” But even in this case, the investigator found no grounds for criminal prosecution.
Ekho Moskvy mentioned a similar ruling in St. Petersburg where the Prosecutor's Office, for a second time, turned down a lawsuit filed by local human rights activists against the authors of the letter. The ruling found nothing objectionable about the use of the word “Yid,” widely considered a pejorative term. (Bigotry Monitor -- UCSJ's weekly newsletter)