In Crimea, the court upheld the sentence of those accused of inciting hatred towards Bulgarians

The Supreme Court of Crimea upheld the verdict of the Crimean Anti-Corruption Bureau activists Dmitry Dzhigalov and Oleg Semenov. on his Facebook page This was announced by the lawyer of the Agora International Human Rights Group Alexei Ladin, who defends Dzhigalov.

Judge Mikhail Sobolyuk found the activists guilty of inciting hatred towards Bulgarians (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). Ladin noted that the judge refused to examine the video recording, referring to the fact that this is not provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Earlier, the Sudak City Court of Crimea sentenced Dzhigalov to a fine of 300,000 rubles, and Semyonov to 50,000, taking into account the six months he spent in a pre-trial detention center.

• Dzhigalov and Semyonov were accused of inciting hatred for negative assessments of a group of people “Bulgarians” in a video dedicated to exposing corrupt officials in Sudak. In the video, Semyonov criticized the Bulgarian government for not inviting a delegation from Russia to celebrate the anniversary of the country's liberation from Ottoman rule in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.

• Dzhigalov was under house arrest, and Semyonov was taken into custody on October 13, 2017 after he left his place of residence on personal business. Activists consider their criminal prosecution to be the revenge of officials.