21. 03. 2014

IN PRISON FOR FORUM POSTS?

Belgrade, 21. 03. 2014 (B92) - The Higher Court in Belgrade decided in the first instance on a suspended prison sentence for three people accused for writing insulting comments on an internet forum, reports web portal "Peščanik".

The accused were sentenced in the first instance to one year in prison each, three years suspended, for insults and threats presented on an internet forum at the expense of Boris Malagurski and Ivan Rajović, the authors of the film "The Presumption of Justice", which deals with the murder of the French football fan Brice Taton in Belgrade.

As stated, the two of them filed criminal charges two years ago against 12 members of the forum "Parapsihopatologija" because of organized threats to life and personal and professional security, posted after the premiere of the film.

According to "Peščanik", the controversial comments were posted in the "closed" part of the forum, to which the general public does not have access, but the prosecution still initiated a criminal investigation.

"The prosecution acknowledged the assessment by Malagurski and Rajović that they perform work of public importance in the field of information, and that the forum comments were serious threats and calls for a lynch, written with the intent and persistence in order for the threats to reach the plaintiffs," said the portal.

Also, the portal notes that the Court rejected the defense motion to hear as witnesses the moderators and other participants of the forum who would further explain the context in which the comments were written.

Ognjen Rašuo, attorney of the two accused, stated that the defense believed that the words of the accused were taken out of context.

"For the court it was completely irrelevant what they said earlier or later. We believed that their words, which in the linguistic sense are not threats, cannot be interpreted outside of the context in which they were said, because that context gives the meaning to the words of the accused. The court did not share that opinion," said Rašuo.

He says that no one has denied that ugly words were said, nor that the accused have a low opinion of Malagurski, but that it is negated that someone has threatened Malagurski.

Rašuo has announced an appeal against the verdict in the first Instance.