A resident of Abakan was awarded 50 thousand rubles for unfounded criminal prosecution due to a video and picture on VKontakte.

The Abakan City Court ordered the Ministry of Finance to pay local resident Artem Yurchenko 50 thousand rubles in compensation for moral damages for unfounded criminal prosecution in a case of extremism. Vladimir Vasin, a lawyer for the international human rights group Agora, told Mediazona about this.

In 2016, two criminal cases were opened against Yurchenko for inciting hatred or enmity due to publications on VKontakte (Article 282 of the Criminal Code), which were later combined into one proceeding. The first case was related to a video about Jews, the second was due to a picture depicting “an angel holding a bird by the tail with the inscription “Modern Orthodox people”.”

The combined case was transferred to the prosecutor's office, but the department did not approve the indictment. As a result, the case was closed in October 2017 due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

“The criminal prosecution lasted 580 days, more than 19 months. During the investigation, it turned out that some of the case materials showed signs of falsification. The prosecutor did not allow this case to go to trial. At the same time, it is important to note that Yurchenko has still not received the official apology required by law from the prosecutor for the illegal criminal prosecution,” Vasin emphasized.