The Case of Ruslan Sokolovsky
Case Law- Country
- Country Location
Latitude: 55.84775990443999
Longitude: 37.50146462023251
- Country Location (linked Case Law)
- Russia
- Decision Date
- 14 de fev. de 2018
- Case Status
- Closed
- Case Outcome (Procedural)
- Affirmed Lower Court
- Motion Denied
- Case Outcome (Disposition)
- Blocking or Filtering of Information
- Keywords
- Blasphemy
- Satire/Parody
- Social Media
- Judicial Body
- Supreme Court (court of final appeal)
- Case Number
- № 1-131/2017
- Case Summary
The Verh-Setsk Regional Court of Yekaterinburg convicted a video-blogger, Ruslan Sokolovsky, of offending the feelings of religious believers and inciting hatred toward a social group through the publication of nine videos on YouTube. In one of the videos, he was playing the popular mobile game Pokémon Go in a church in Yekaterinburg and he was making statements questioning the existence of Jesus and the Prophet Muhammed. On the basis of expert testimony, the Verh-Setsk Regional Court held that Mr. Sokolovsky’s videos mocked Christianity, Islam and its believers, and incited hatred toward them. Mr. Sokolovsky was given a three-year suspended sentence, and was banned from public events for the duration of his sentence. The nine videos were also ordered to be removed from the internet. Columbia Global Freedom of Expression could not identify the official legal and government records on the case and that the information contained in this report was derived from secondary sources. It must be noted that media outlets may not provide complete information about this case. Additional information regarding this legal matter will be updated as an official source becomes available.
- Case Significance
The decision does not establish a binding or persuasive precedent within its jurisdiction.
- Source Name and URL
- Columbia Global Freedom of Expression