A furniture-maker in Lithuania has been ordered to pay a fine of £375 after calling on Facebook for “another Hitler” to kill gays.
The Lithuania Gay League reports that the man, 37, was handed down a fine of 1560 Lithuanian litas after they alerted authorities to his post.
He had commented under an article on Facebook about Lady Gaga’s criticism of the Lithuanian Government.
He wrote: “What we need is another Hitler to exterminate those fags ‘cause there’s just too many of them multiplying.”
According to Lithuanian-language Delfi.lt, the First District Court of Vilnius City found he had 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.
Section 170 (3) of Lithuania’s penal code expressly criminalises the public incitements to violence against gay and transgender minorities.
Vladimir Simonko of the Lithuanian Gay League told PinkNews.co.uk: “The complaint filed by LGL was a result of its regular monitoring of the media for hate speech. The good expert practices of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman also contributed to this result. We are optimistic that the court decision will serve as an example to reduce such rhetoric in the future.”
The author of the comment admitted publishing the comment on Facebook, but argued it 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.”
Vilnius City hosted Lithuania’s first gay pride march in 2010. It had been banned by authorities citing security concerns before being allowed to go ahead.
by Stephen Gray
Source – PinkNews
