Translated material
In the Primorsky Territory, a court overturned a fine for a post about “phone sex” with a police officer
The Primorsky Regional Court canceled a fine of 30 thousand rubles under the article on disrespect for a representative of the authorities (part 3 of article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), assigned to a man named I. An administrative case was opened because of a post on Instagram. This is reported by MBH Media with reference to the website of the court.
According to the publication, I. posted a post on his Instagram account with the phrase “Sex on the phone with the head of the traffic police department will take place on August 13, 2020.” The publication dealt with a conversation between the deputy of the city of Artem Semyon Sesekin and the head of the local traffic police, Vladimir Alexandrov.
On November 11, the Artyomovsk City Court found I. guilty under the article on contempt of authority. The police officers, who drew up a protocol in the wake of the fast, said that the man posted "information expressed in an indecent form, insulting human dignity and public morality, (demonstrating) disrespect for society and state bodies."
The Court of Appeal found that the District Court refused to consider several motions filed by I., in particular, to summon police officers to the hearing as witnesses.
The judge of the Primorsky Regional Court concluded that the violation of I.'s rights in the court of first instance "is significant and did not allow a full, objective and comprehensive resolution of the case in accordance with the requirements of the law." The judge also stressed that the statute of limitations for bringing under part 3 of Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses had already expired at the time of the appeal, and therefore decided to terminate the proceedings.
The news has been corrected: the name and surname of I. have been replaced with initials, since OVD-Info did not personally receive consent from the hero of the news to publish the data. Such a replacement does not allow the identification of the participants in the litigation within the meaning of the law on access to judicial information , that is, it does not apply to the identified natural person.
- On March 18, 2019, President Vladimir Putin signed a law on disrespect for the state on the Internet. For the first offense under this law, a fine of 30 to 100 thousand rubles is provided.
- Cases under the article on “disrespect for the authorities” (as well as state symbols, society) are initiated for criticizing the president, judges and other officials, for actions with the Constitution , for flags and even for dancing .