A Sochi court again confiscated antiques with Nazi symbols from a seller

The seller of the German helmet was fined 1,000 rubles.

On September 5, 2016, the Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory reported that in Sochi he was prosecuted under Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of Nazi symbols) seller of military antiques.

From the ruling of the Central District Court of Sochi dated August 23, 2016, it follows that 27-year-old S. Zaparin posted on the Avito website an advertisement for the sale of a helmet made in 1940 with the symbols of Nazi Germany - an eagle and a swastika - for 8 thousand rubles. Zaparin was fined 1,000 rubles, and the object of the offense was confiscated from him.

We believe that the confiscation of goods in such cases is unjustified, since antiques are of material value to the seller, and not at all a propaganda tool. It also seems inappropriate to destroy antique items after confiscation, since they are also of historical value and can be transferred to a museum.

From our point of view, Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses in general should not be applied to antique dealers, but to modern manufacturers of items with Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols (badges, clothes, copies of weapons, etc.) and distributors of such products.

Earlier, the Central District Court of Sochi fined an antique dealer 1,000 rubles for selling a Nazi badge for 100 rubles.

Sources

• At the initiative of the Prosecutor's Office of the city of Sochi, the fact of public demonstration of Nazi symbols on the Internet was suppressed // Website of the Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory. 2016. September 7th.
• Case card No. 5-660/2016 // Website of the Central District Court of Sochi. 2016. September 7th.