SAVVA TERENTYEV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 3 the comments, including the one left by Mr T. In the applicant’s words, this latter comment made a particularly strong impression on him. 13. He then returned to Mr B.S.’s blog and posted a comment which was entitled “I hate the cops, for fuck’s sake” (“Ненавижу ментов, сцуконах”) and read as follows: “I disagree with the idea that ‘police officers still have the mentality of a repressive hard stick in the hands of those who have the power’. Firstly, they are not police officers but cops; secondly, their mentality is incurable. A pig always remains a pig. Who becomes a cop? Only lowbrows and hoodlums – the dumbest and least educated representatives of the animal world. It would be great if in the centre of every Russian city, on the main square ... there was an oven, like at Auschwitz, in which ceremonially every day, and better yet, twice a day (say, at noon and midnight) infidel cops would be burnt. The people would be burning them. This would be the first step to cleansing society of this cop-hoodlum filth.” C. Criminal proceedings against the applicant 1. Preliminary investigation 14. On 14 March 2007 criminal proceedings were brought against the applicant under Article 282 § 1 of the Russian Criminal Code in connection with his comment on the Internet. 15. On 16 March 2007 the police searched the applicant’s home in the context of those proceedings. On the same day the applicant, who had found out the reasons for the criminal case against him, removed his comment. 16. A report of 30 April 2007, reflecting the results of an examination carried out during the preliminary investigation, provided a detailed analysis of the language of the applicant’s comment. It stated, in particular, that in the text its author had expressed a distinctly negative opinion about all police officers, their personal and professional qualities, in a gross, indecent, aggressive and insulting form, widely using slang and, indirectly, obscene vocabulary typical of young users of the Internet. 2. Proceedings before the courts (a) Proceedings before the first-instance court 17. In the proceedings before the Syktyvkar Town Court of the Komi Republic (“the Town Court”), the applicant pleaded not guilty. He conceded that he had been the author of the impugned statement, and argued that it had represented his emotional and spontaneous reaction to the press release of Memorial regarding the police search at the office of an opposition newspaper and to Mr B.S.’s relevant post and Mr T.’s comment. In the applicant’s words, for him there was a distinction between a “police officer”, that is to say an honest and respectable law-enforcement officer, and a “cop”, that is to say someone who acted unlawfully and abusively