The ECHR awarded seven and a half thousand euros in compensation to a Russian LGBT activist

The European Court of Human Rights awarded seven and a half thousand euros in compensation for moral damages to LGBT activist Dmitry Yartsev. The press service of the LGBT group “Stimul” reported this to OVD-Info.

Yartsev was awarded compensation in connection withhis arrest at the agreed May Day march, which took place in 2016 in Moscow. During the demonstration, the activist led an LGBT column and shouted slogans “No discrimination based on gender and orientation” and “Labor rights for all.”

Later, he was detained by law enforcement officers - they stated that the slogans voiced by Yartsev “did not correspond to the theme of the action.” In the protocol, the security forces wrote that the activist shouted “Down with the cops’ lawlessness!” and “Down with the police state.”

The European Court found that prosecuting people for shouting slogans that “do not correspond to the stated purposes of a concerted public event” is contrary to the law and is an interference with freedom of speech. The ECHR did not investigate what exactly Yartsev shouted.