A 37-year-old man from Vilnius has been ordered in court to pay a fine of 450 euros (1560 Lithuanian litas) for a comment he posted under an article on Facebook about the world-famous singer Lady Gaga’s criticism of the Lithuanian Government, atviri.lt informs.
According to Delfi.lt , the First District Court of Vilnius City judged that, in his public comment about gays, the man, currently employed as a furniture assembler, employed inflammatory rhetoric and encouraged mockery, defiance, discrimination and physical violence against a group of people or its members on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Investigation into the comment was started after prosecutors received notification about it from Lithuanian Gay League (LGL)
.
The article concerned Lady Gaga’s performance in connection with Gay Pride events in Rome, during which she criticized governments of countries that violate the rights of homosexual people, including Lithuania.
In his comment the man said: “What we need is another Hitler to exterminate those fags ‘cause there’s just too many of them multiplying.”
The Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman also considered the reader’s comment to encourage mockery, defiance and discrimination of a group of people or its members. Experts stated that the style of the comment is clearly contemptuous and reveals hatred towards homosexuals.
The wording of the comment also directly calls for violent actions.
During questioning the author of the comment admitted publishing the comment on Facebook, but argued that his comment was only his own personal view. “It was not my intention to call for violence against gays and I feel sorry for what was written – I did not expect that this comment would insult anyone in the public domain,” the man said.
Source – The Lithuania Tribune
