Bits.media lawyers have achieved the prosecutor's office to claim the site – Bits Media

Representing the interests of Bits.media in the court, Digital Rights Center specialists proved, that the media did not violate the laws and blocking, in the spring at the request of the prosecutor's office, was a mistake. Saratov prosecutor's office, who was applying for a local court, I was forced abandon the lawsuit.

The supervisory authority turned to the Volzhsky District Court of Saratov 31 Martha last year, Asking to block the page bits.media/exchanger. This is an information catalog, displaying information about bitcoin exchange services and altcoins from public sources. The local prosecutor considered the catalog "Information, aimed at promoting crimes in the field of legalization (laundering) income, mined by criminal. The court accepted the lawsuit and in the shortest possible time granted the request. 28 April Judge Alla Danilenko decided to start blocking. 30 June, the entire website Bits.media has ceased to be affordable users of most Russian providers.

The judge examined the case alone, Without the presence of owners of blocked Internet resources, the founder of Bits.media, Ivan Tikhonov, learned about the decision of the Saratov court only upon blocking by Roskomnadzor.

Already 5 July, the lock was removed - thanks to that, that Bits.media turned off the disputed page. But this did not make a fair verdict more fair. Therefore, the team
Digital Rights Center officially undertook to represent the interests of Bits.media in court.

DRC lawyers think, that the lock has broken, Firstly, Subject law.

The court made a decision, agreeing with the position of the prosecutor, confident, that in Russia it is impossible to disseminate information about cryptocurrencies, Since the Law "On the Central Bank" prohibits "the release of monetary surrogates".

However, the prosecutor did not take into account the circumstances:

• Nowhere in Russian legislation, cryptocurrency is not mentioned as a monetary surrogate, Moreover, There is no itself the definition of monetary surrogate;

• Civil law turnover of cryptocurrencies is not prohibited by applicable law, And the norms of administrative and criminal law do not contain any responsibility for the turnover and exchange of cryptocurrencies.

DRC lawyers are sure, what, Secondly, There was a violation procedural law.

The first instance court deprived the owner of the site Bits.media, the opportunity to protect its rights and submit to the hearings its own position. No one notified the owner of the trial, Despite the presence of contacts on the site and information about the domain administrator in the WHOIS database.

In the absence of the owner of Bits.media, the trial was carried out in violation of the principles of adversarial and equal rights of the parties to the civil process, provided for by the Code of Administrative Procedure of the Russian Federation. And this, that the solution entailed a number of substantive consequences, violating the rights of the owner to freedom, obtaining and disseminating information, obliging to execute a verdict without a specific indication: what kind of information about cryptocurrencies violates the law.

The interests of Bits.media lawyers appealed the decision of the judge of the Volga district court Saratov in an appeal, where they achieved the sending of the case for a new consideration to the same court by the same judge. In parallel, lawyers contacted the Saratov prosecutors. Relying on his many judicial practice (Including on the case of the exchangers aggregator Bestchange.ru), Lawyers convinced employees of the supervisory authority to abandon the lawsuit on a new circle.

In the end 24 january 2023 Buddha of Judge Alla Danilenko, which in the spring 2022 years have made a decision to restrict access to bits.media, In the new court hearing, the acting. Prosecutor of the Volzhsky District of the city of Saratov from an administrative claim regarding the claims to the site. The interests of the Bits.media lawyer DRC Inna Twerezovskaya representing in court, Of course, I did not mind the refusal of the claim. As a result, the administrative case was terminated. From this moment, DRC representatives speak, All information posted on Bits.media has ceased to be considered prohibited in the Russian Federation.