RUSSIAN MAN SENTENCED OVER ONLINE FORUM COMMENT

The Other Russia
ssian-man-sentenced-over-online-forum-comment/
Jul y 30 2008
Russia

A regional court in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai has sentenced an area man
to 150 hours of community service for comments he left on an internet
forum. As the Yuga.ru online newspaper reports (Rus) on July 20th,
the court found the man guilty of writing pejorative comments towards
people of a different nationality.

The man left comments on the web-forum of Kuban.ru, a regional
website often filled with lively discussion, while he was at work. The
statements referred to a fight between Dagestani nationals that took
place in the city of Timashevsk in June 2007. The comments in question
were not available for publication.

Charges were filed under article 282 of Russia’s Criminal Code,
which is used to combat extremism.

This is not the first time that Kuban.ru users have been charged for
speaking out on the forum. In June, area resident Vyacheslav Yushkin
was charged (Rus) after starting a discussion about a fight between
OMON riot police and restaurant-goers in Armavir. The thread, titled
"Around 20 persons of Caucasus nationality have been hurt at the
hands of special forces troops" reprinted selected news about the
incident. It allegedly incited racial discord and "hurt the dignity
of all Armenians."

According to the lenta.ru online newspaper (Rus), another forum user
was charged with defamation for comments left in the summer of 2007.