After the police investigation, there were inconveniences due to the Baltic Pride march

At present, Lithuanian courts have already issued at least five criminal orders convicting Internet commentators, serving not only monetary but also custodial sentences.

These investigations began when Eitvydas Zurba, the then head of the public body “Voice of Human Rights”, which defends human rights, approached law enforcement officials. He indicated that he returned home after the event and decided to review the comments that had been written on the publicly released recordings of the event.

“In the comment sections next to the entries, I read the comments written there and selected the comments that could meet the criteria of incitement to hatred from the list that I intended to transmit to the responsible authorities; I found more than 100 comments that could be considered as manifestations of hate speech, ”said E. Zurba, representative of a public body, who forwarded the list to the Office of the Inspector of Journalistic Ethics.

At that time, the police investigation began much later, when the service evaluated the comments, only the authors of the searches were prosecuted, which were evaluated as crimes.

One of them is Erikas K. from Vilnius, who, according to Vilnius City District Court judge Marijus Kursevičius, “publicly humiliated, despised a group of homosexuals for their sexual orientation and publicly promoted the idea of ​​violence. physical and incited physical violence to deal with violence. a group of people or a person belonging to him because of his sexual orientation ”. According to the court, Erik K., who works as a manager in a company, wrote the following comment from his Facebook account: “Circus blt ….. istrempt such pi … (uncensored humiliating jargon) and that he supports i sibira that (word without censorship) is frozen and cut ”.

The Vilnius man, who had proven his worth in public, was no longer as brave when the police called him for questioning. Here, he pleaded guilty, but argued that “he sincerely regrets having committed a crime, he realizes that writing such a comment may have offended homosexuals, so no more comments of this type are written or written, it will not happen again. “.

“I am traditionally oriented, such a gay march was unacceptable to me, I was furious and just wanted to express my opinion, I wrote a comment after the video,” said Eric K. – I commented on this comment. I agree that I chose to be too rude, but I did not seek to incite or deal with discord, nor did I incite public violence. “

The Vilnius resident also admitted that after this comment, Facebook blocked his account: “They told me that if I want the account to be unblocked, I have to delete the comment and stop doing it. When I deleted the comment, my account was unlocked. I realized that I had done wrong. “

The conclusion of the specialist from the Lithuanian Forensic Science Center stated that the comment written by Erik K. expressed the position that homosexual people, who are named in the degrading jargon “pi …”, should be deported from the country, is say, deported. .

“Also vulgarly naming the male genitalia expresses a favorable attitude towards the castration of homosexuals; The comment publicly humiliates, despises a group of homosexuals because of their sexual orientation and publicly promotes the idea of ​​physical violence against a group of homosexuals because of their sexual orientation, ”the experts pointed out.

For the crime committed, Erik K. was sentenced by the court to four months in prison and ordered to continue working or registering with the Employment Service, and during the prison period he was required to work up to 30 unpaid hours in the medical care. social services or non-governmental organizations for the elderly, people with disabilities or other people in need of assistance.

Dainius A., a company driver living in the Vilnius district, was also sentenced to four months in prison. It is true that during the sentence the convicted person will only have to continue working or register with the Employment Service.

After examining the criminal case, Jolanta Bagdonienė, judge of the Vilnius Chamber of the Vilnius Region, stated that Dainius A. publicly humiliated and despised a group of homosexuals for their sexual orientation and publicly promoted the idea of ​​physical violence and incited the violence. , physically dealing with or belonging to a group of people. your sexual orientation.

This is how the comment “Shoot the Disgusts” written by Dainius A.

“On the social network Facebook, I saw a video uploaded showing the marches of homosexuals,” said a resident of the Vilnius district during the survey. “Because I am traditionally oriented, such gay marches were unacceptable to me, because they demonstrate artificial genitalia, attach them to themselves, and thus negatively affect young people, which is why I wrote an impromptu comment after the video.” .

Dainius A. also admitted that his Facebook profile was also blocked after this comment.

“After that I found out, I sincerely regret having committed a crime, I understand that writing this type of comment could offend homosexuals, so I do not write more comments of that type, it will not happen again,” the man assured him . sincerely regrets and learned from this situation.

The conclusion of the specialist from the Lithuanian Forensic Science Center indicated that in Dainius A.’s comment, homosexual people are described with a degrading epithet of “disgust” and a declarative position is expressed that they should be physically treated with gunshots .

“The comment humiliates, publicly despises groups of homosexuals because of their sexual orientation and publicly promotes the idea of ​​physical violence directed against a group of homosexuals because of their sexual orientation,” the experts noted.

Marius J. from Klaipėda, who was not working anywhere at the time, was prosecuted for the comment “To everyone in the ghettos”, which expresses the position that homosexuals should be isolated from society, locked in ghettos.

“This is a group of homosexuals publicly humiliated and despised for their sexual orientation, a publicly promoted violent idea directed against such people because of their sexual orientation,” said Judge Viktorija Teišerskienė of the Klaipėda Municipal Court of the Klaipėda District Court.

After examining the criminal case, it became clear that the Klaipėda resident who wrote this comment is the father of six children.

“I wrote the comment emotionally excited, not intentionally humiliating, belittling, belittling, insulting or inciting to deal physically with this group of people,” said Marius J. – I wrote a personal opinion with the idea that these people would create a certain space of their own to celebrate without celebrating your holidays. It was the only comment of my kind that I wrote, I have not written any offensive comment anywhere else. I sincerely regret the written comment, I promise I will not do it again. “

The conclusion of the specialist from the Lithuanian Forensic Science Center states that in the comment Marius J. declaratively, in the form of a slogan, expresses the position that homosexual people should be isolated from society – locked in ghettos.

“During World War II, Jews were held in ghettos until they were transferred to concentration camps, that is, places of extermination, so the comment is humiliating and derogatory of homosexuals,” experts said about the treatment of the comment to homosexuals. with, the comment promotes the idea of ​​violence against such people.

As noted by the court that issued the criminal order, Marius J. realized that he had publicly incited hatred against a group of people or a person belonging to him on the grounds of sexual orientation and publicly incited a physical confrontation with a group or a person. belong to him on the basis of sexual orientation.

Taking into account the circumstances set out in the case, the court decided to impose a fine of MGL 34 (EUR 1,770) on a Klaipeda resident, which it ordered to be paid no later than a year and a half.

Due to the comments written in the public space, the criminal proceedings were completed for two residents of the Šiauliai district. According to the prosecution, 57 m. Šiauliai was convicted of inciting a group of people named on the grounds of sexual orientation. For writing a comment against homosexuals on a social network, the husband will be deprived of his freedom for 6 months. The convicted person will also have to get a job or continue to register with the Employment Service.

The court found that comments posted in the comment section of a video posted on the Facebook social network about the march publicly disparaged and incited hatred against homosexuals because of their sexual orientation. One of them was written by a convicted Šiauliai resident who was allegedly angry at gay people.

During the pre-trial investigation, the specialist, having performed the assigned task, found that the man had written a comment expressing the position that homosexuals participating in the march should be exterminated and such actions would not be enough. According to the specialist, the comment despises homosexuals and promotes the idea of ​​violence against these individuals.

At that time 37 m. A resident of the Radviliškis district publicly despised homosexuals because of their sexual orientation and publicly incited violence and physical treatment of homosexuals. A resident of the Radviliškis district admitted his guilt, sincerely regretted it and was released from criminal responsibility on bail.

Prosecutor Saulius Kulikauskas, who led the pre-trial investigation, draws attention to the habit of writing negative comments on social media: “When writing comments in cyberspace, a person must take into account that their thoughts are seen by everyone. If the culture of communication exists in real life, it must also be respected in virtual life. “

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, these preliminary investigations are separated from the main criminal case, which investigates 9 more similar crimes allegedly committed by individuals.