4 SAVVA TERENTYEV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT when performing professional duties. In his comment the applicant had expressed his disagreement with Mr T., who, in the applicant’s view, had confused those two notions. The applicant also insisted that his comments had been exclusively addressed to Mr B.S. with whom he had shared his thoughts regarding the police operation of 14 February 2007, and that he had had no intention of making it public, let alone calling for any actions against the police. The applicant further conceded that his comment had been quite provocative, but insisted that he had used exaggeration, in particular, referred to “an oven, like at Auschwitz”, only to express an idea that “infidel” police officers should be severely punished. Lastly, he apologised to former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps and to “honest” police officers, who may have felt offended by his comment. 18. The Town Court called and examined a large number of witnesses. In particular, three police officers, who had conducted a pre-investigation inquiry in connection with the applicant’s comment on the Internet, stated that they had not seen it as directed against only “infidel” police officers; in their view, it had related to all police officers, had ascribed negative characteristics to them and had proposed to incinerate them in public. Mr B.S. stated that, in his view, the applicant’s comment had drawn a distinction between honest police officers and “infidel cops” and had only related to the latter category. Some of the witnesses stated that they had seen the applicant’s comment in Mr B.S.’s blog, whereas others stated that they had only become aware of the comment or read it after the criminal proceedings had been instituted against the applicant and his case had attracted the attention of the mass media. Some of the witnesses stated that they considered the applicant’s comment and the expressions used therein to be too harsh, and the word “lowbrows” to be immoral or unethical. Mr I.S. pointed out that “the bloggers’ community”, including his own acquaintances, had been indignant at the applicant’s comment which they had considered to be too strongly-worded; however, in that witness’s view, the applicant had merely expressed his opinion and had started a public discussion on an important issue. Another witness stated that he had not taken the applicant’s comment seriously, let alone seen it as calling for any violent action. 19. At the request of the parties, the first-instance court ordered that a comprehensive socio-humanities forensic expert examination of the impugned text be carried out by a commission of experts. 20. The expert report of 19 June 2008, reflecting the results of that examination, stated, in particular, that the applicant had targeted police officers as a “social group” and that his comment had “aimed at inciting hatred and enmity” towards this group and had “called for their physical extermination”.