A court in Lithuania has sentenced local resident Vytautas M. to four months’ probation for a Facebook comment in which he urged other users to “beat up Russians”, Delfi news outlet reports.
Vytautas will now have to take part in a behavioural correction program. Besides, the court issued him a €500 fine.
According to the court, the Lithuanian national “openly called for discrimination against Russians as a group of people on the basis of nationality, called for violence against these people, mocked Russians and incited hatred towards them”.
The man left a comment under a Facebook post quoting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, who said: “We’re doing everything in our power to end Russia’s adventurism in Ukraine”. Delfi points out that many users wrote comments about the Russian aggression under the post.
Vytautas said: “If you see a Russian, hit them in the fucking head.” He then added: “Those are my words, my freedom or my lack of it. I might go to jail, and you’ll still be here pissing your pants.”
One of the commenters threatened to go to the police. For its part, the Lithuanian police contacted experts who found calls for ethnic discrimination and physical violence, as well as signs of enmity against Russians, in Vytautas’ comments.