18:00, 19 January 2011

Court in Ulan-Ude fines journalists accused of inciting hatred against power agents

On January 19, the Soviet District Court of the city of Ulan-Ude (Buryatia) found Tatiana Stetsura and Nadezhda Nizovkina guilty of inciting hatred and enmity to militaries and employees of law enforcement bodies and fined each of them by 100,000 roubles.

According to the press service of the Investigatory Division for Buryatia of the Russian Investigatory Committee, Nizovkina and Stetsura disseminated leaflets with negative content picturing the image of Russian militaries, militiamen and employees of investigatory bodies.

The inquiry revealed three more similar episodes. Thus, in December 2008 in central Ulan-Ude the young women spread leaflets, where the text negatively assessed and characterized actions of FSB agents.

In the same period of time, the journalists published an article of similar content in the newspaper "Svobodnoe Slovo" (Free Word), and on May 1, 2009, while already under investigation, they distributed leaflets among the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) members present at the sanctioned May Day rally, the "Interfax" reports.