A/HRC/40/58 and ruled that the band had offended Orthodox believers. The judge also accepted the conclusion of a psycholinguistic expert panel that determined that the performance by Pussy Riot violated standards of public behaviour and offended Orthodox Christians. The Khamovnicheskiy District Court found them guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and hatred towards a particular social group. However, on 17 July 2018, the European Court of Human Rights held that their criminal prosecution and imprisonment amounted to disproportionate interference with the group’s freedom of expression. The Court’s judgment explicitly took note of the Human Rights Committee’s general comment No. 34 (2011), along with special procedure reports. As did Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and ARTICLE 19 in their related submissions, the Court also referred to the Rabat Plan of Action’s six-part threshold test.20 In Cuba, the Penal Code currently allows for the imprisonment from three months to one year of persons believed to have abused the right to freedom of religion or belief, by placing “religious beliefs in conflict with the aims of education, the duties of labour, defending the nation in arms, the reverence of its symbols or any other stipulations whatsoever contained in the Constitution”.21 This measure, which purports to defend public order, allows the State to penalize a broad range of protected activities. As such, large-scale detentions reportedly continued to increase in 2016 and 2017. In February 2016, 200 members of the Emanuel Church of the Apostolic Movement (one of the largest churches in the Santiago de Cuba region) were detained, the church was destroyed, and church property was confiscated. 43. C. Anti-apostasy laws The existence of anti-apostasy laws and the violence that they engender may lead individuals to exercise self-censorship which in our interconnected world may have a negative impact of international reach. The range of victims include clerics, teachers, students, writers, reporters, bloggers, painters, musicians, actors, publishers, booksellers, webmasters, politicians, human rights defenders and dissidents, among others. Not only do these laws undermine intellectual and artistic freedom essential for a vibrant society, but they can also impair the communicative freedom essential for the exercise of rights related to freedom of religion or belief. Moreover, they can also eliminate the space for due process rights, which are essential for the rule of law and for the political discourse necessary for a functioning democracy. 44. Ashraf Fayadh Palestinian poet and artist, Ashraf Fayadh, was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, having been found guilty of apostasy in 2015, after which an appeals court commuted the death sentence to eight years in prison and 800 lashes. Mr. Fayadh was first arrested on 6 August 2013, following a complaint by a Saudi Arabian citizen alleging that the poet was promoting atheism and spreading blasphemous ideas among young people. He was released the next day but was rearrested in January 2014 and charged with apostasy because he allegedly questioned religion and promoted atheism through his poetry. In a press statement on this case, former Special Rapporteur Heiner Bielefeldt stressed that people should be able to express convictions, doubts and ideas without fear of persecution and that practice of religious belief can best flourish in a society that allows for freedom of expression. 22 Mr. Fayadh remains a prisoner of conscience. 45. 20 21 22 12 European Court of Human Rights, Mariya Alekhina and other v. Russia, Application No. 38004/12, Judgment of 17 July 2018, paras. 105–110, 187, 190–191, 223–224, 229–230; and separate opinion of María Elósegui, para. 14. Cuba, Penal Code, (chap. VI, art. 206), titled “Abuse of liberty of worship”. OHCHR, “UN rights experts urge Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh”, 3 December 2015.