Russian blogger on trial for inciting hatred against police

Russian Internet blogger is on trial for inciting hatred against the Russian law-enforcement authorities. The texts that he posted in his blog are seen as discrediting the Russian police.

Dmitry Solovyov, resident of the city of Kemerovo in Russia’s Siberia and a member of the Oborona [Defense] youth opposition movement has been charged by the local Procesutor’s Office with inciting hatred and humiliating human dignity, the Kommersant daily reports Monday.

Investigation was launched after several posts had appeared on Solovyov’s  blog, in which he compared the Russian authorities to the KGB, and accused the police and the Federal Security Bureau of hushing down dissidents.

“Activists and dissidents are being ‘knocked out’ one by one: some are sent to the army, some to mental homes, some get imprisoned for planted drugs or ammunition, some just get killed, some are intimidated and leave, some get deported,” runs one of the entries.

Other entries tell stories of the law-enforcement agencies framing up cases, forcing suspects to confess, and pursuing political opposition.

“You are afraid that everyone will find out what you have turned a free country into, in just eight years,” Solovyov says, addressing the unspecified “people in grey”.

“How many innocents spend years in detention waiting for an unfair judgment? How many people have been made cripples and killed by the police, who tortured them into confessing what they never did – only to keep up the monthly crime control indicators?”

The Oborona youth movement, known for its spectacular protest actions against the authorities, claims this is a political case.

This is the second time that a criminal case is launched against a Russian blogger. In July 2008, Savva Terentyev, resident of the Komi Republic, received  a one-year suspended sentence for a ranting criticism of the police.