A Krasnodar teenager was fined for acquitting a New Zealand terrorist.

A military court in Rostov-on-Don has imposed a fine on a minor resident of Krasnodar, accused of justifying terrorism for a comment about Brenton Tarrant.

The minor was charged with justifying terrorism via the internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code). This article carries a sentence of five to seven years in prison, with a minimum fine of 300,000 rubles.

The teenager's criminal prosecution was based on a comment on the social network VKontakte. A minor from Krasnodar set as his avatar a photo of Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for two terrorist attacks against Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand.

One user in the fan community of Ukrainian streamer Papich drew attention to this and called Tarrant a Nazi; A Kuban resident responded that he considers Tarrant a "hero" and not a terrorist, Mediazona* reported, citing the court's press service.

The court sentenced the young man to a fine of 40,000 rubles and a ban on administering internet pages for a year and a half. The Krasnodar resident admitted guilt during the investigation and stated in court that he had "mistakenly" approved of Tarrant's actions.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that Rostov-on-Don resident Konstantin Kultyshev was convicted of justifying the 2020 Christchurch attack. The case was heard by the same Southern District Military Court, and Kultyshev was sentenced to two years in a general regime penal colony and a ban on administering websites. Denis Shchebetun, a resident of the Martynovsky district of the Rostov region, received the same sentence in 2020 for comments about attacks on Muslims in New Zealand.

* are included in the Russian register of foreign agents.

** The activities of Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.