Russian blogger’s appeal against sentence rejected

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Komi in the Russian Federation has rejected the cassation appeal brought by the lawyers of bloggers Savva Terentiev. The court’s reasons were not given.

In February 2007 Terentiev wrote a comment to an entry on Live Journal called people who become cops “scum” and suggested burning “unfaithful” police officers on city squares. A criminal investigation was initiated under Article 282 § 1 of the Criminal Code (“Incitement to hatred and enmity, denigration of human dignity”). He was convicted and given a one-year suspended sentence by a city court in Syktyvkar in July of this year.

The appeal was lodged with the Komi Supreme Court on 14 July. Terentiev’s lawyer asserted that the court had violated Terentiev’s rights, the law, Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Head of the Republic Volodymyr Torpopov also spoke out for Terentiev saying that he thought there were no grounds for punishing him.

A great deal about the case was discussed in the world media in July, largely because this is an ominous precedent, with a person being convicted over remarks made in the Live Journal.

It is not the first time, however, that a Russian national has been convicted over what in most countries is concerned expressing his views – see the case of Taras Zelenyak. (http://khpg.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1184583112&w=Taras+Zelenyak http://khpg.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1159701976 )

New information reported on UNIAN from www.lenta.ru