Russian Student Fined for Anti-Semitic Leaflets - Campus News & Climate, Civil Discourse and Academic Freedom - SPME Scholars for Peace in the Middle East

Russian Student Fined for Anti-Semitic Leaflets

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/11/01/1008862/russian-student-guilty-of-anti-semitism

(JTA) — A Russian court fined a university for posting anti-Semitic and racist leaflets on a St. Petersburg subway.

Sergey Orlov was found guilty Oct. 30 in Vyborg district court of fomenting interethnic hatred, according to a report by the Sova Information-Analytical Center, the UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union reported.

Prosecutors plan to appeal the verdict, which they said was too lenient. They are seeking jail time for Orlov. The amount of the fine was undisclosed.

The leaflets urged Russian citizens to “act against Muslims, Jews, Chinese, and people from the Caucasus and Central Asia,” Radio Free Europe reported.

Russia’s criminal code prohibits incitement of ethnic or religious hatred.

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Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is not-for-profit [501 (C) (3)], grass-roots community of scholars who have united to promote honest, fact-based, and civil discourse, especially in regard to Middle East issues. We believe that ethnic, national, and religious hatreds, including anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, have no place in our institutions, disciplines, and communities. We employ academic means to address these issues.