A man who called to burn mosques and Korans brought to court in Kharkiv region

This is reported by the Information portal of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group.

On January 10, 2020, this person “while staying at home, using a PC and a printer, printed A4 leaflets in the amount of 8 pieces, the content of which violated personal rights and freedoms of people who profess Islam, as provided for in Articles 24, 26 and 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, and contain signs of inciting interethnic, racial, religious hatred,” the Unified State Register of Judicial Decisions states. After that, pursuing with his criminal intent to bring the content of the specified leaflet to the notice of the population of Kupyansk, Kharkiv region, he got these flyers glued on the bulletin boards along Studentska street, Kupyansk, due to which they became available to an unlimited number of visitors and residents of Kupyansk.”

The convicted P. is a citizen of Ukraine, born in 1974, has a secondary education, divorced, unemployed, “has no previous criminal record under Article 89 of the criminal code of Ukraine” (canceled conviction).

In his ‘proclamation’ he spoke in Russian to ‘Orthodox residents of Kupyansk’ and called on them to counter “the dominance of Muslims”, “burn mosques and Qurans.” At the same time, he advised: “Remember the history, it was not for nothing that Stalin convict these (then goes a very offensive statement) Muslims, put into cars and exported as cattle to Siberia.” And in the end, he called to unite and "defend the Orthodox faith and our land from the Muslims" - saying “they are the source of all evil”.

The reasons that prompted the unemployed Kupyansk resident to hate Muslims that much are unclear. However, the lawyer said reluctantly: "My client is a poor man. At first, he said that he was allegedly given leaflets, paid money, so he distributed them."

However, this did not prevent the suspect from entering into a guilty plea agreement with the Prosecutor and with the participation of the defense lawyer. As stated in the verdict, the accused sincerely repented and contributed to the discovery of the crime during the pre-trial investigation.”
Probably that is the reason why the judgment has not been too hard: the Kupyansk City Court in Kharkiv region citizen P. was recognized guilty in a criminal offense under Part 1 Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and appointed "agreed punishment in the form of freedom restriction for three years without deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities”.

Also, it was decided to dismiss P. from serving his sentence, if he does not commit a new crime during the probation period of 1 year and fulfills the duties assigned to him.

According to judicial statistics of Ukraine, in 2019, the number of court cases qualified under Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine was 9, and the number of persons whose proceedings were in court was 10. Of these, four people were convicted in 4 cases last year. However, six proceedings still continued at the end of the year.