Deaf-mute resident of Kabardino-Balkaria fined for discrediting the army due to video in messenger

The court fined Shakarbai Pashshaliev for the audio of a video he posted on WhatsApp, although the disabled person could not hear what was said in the video.

As "Caucasian Knot" wrote, liability for discrediting the armed forces was introduced on March 4, 2022. After that, residents of Russia, including the regions of the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts, began to be prosecuted under the corresponding article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. It provides for a fine of 30,000 to 100,000 rubles for citizens, and a repeat violation within a year threatens criminal prosecution.

The Prokhladnensky District Court in Kabardino-Balkaria fined Shakarbai Pashshaliev, a resident of the village of Znamenskoye, under the article on discrediting the army. The man's case was brought to the attention of the project "We Can Explain"* on August 12.

The court published its ruling on Pashshaliev's case on August 8, although the decision was made on July 24. The court considered a video that the man posted in his WhatsApp status to be discrediting the army - it was a video sequence with "negative comments" about the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine.

A deaf-mute since childhood, a disabled person of the third group, he was interrogated in court with the help of a sign language interpreter. He told the court that the video was sent to him and he did not assume that it contained discrediting of the Russian army, since he could not listen to the "negative comments" in the video.

Pashshaliev admitted his guilt and deleted the video, stating that he supports Russia's military actions in Ukraine. Despite this, the court fined him 15 thousand rubles - this is half of the minimum fine provided for by the administrative article on discrediting the army.

* are included in the register of foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.