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A Russian citizen has been held liable for an SMS message sent to a Belarusian security officer in 2020. This was reported by the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to its version, the Russian citizen, while in Russia’s Smolensk Region, used the internet to send “an SMS message threatening violence to the phone number of a serviceman of the Internal Troops of the Belarusian Interior Ministry in connection with the performance of his official duties in suppressing mass unrest by a group of citizens with radical views towards the current authorities in the republic”. The harsh suppression of demonstrations in Belarus after the 2020 election sparked outrage, which many people expressed in various forms.
The man’s identity was established by Russian security services at the request of their Belarusian counterparts. However, it was impossible to extradite him because he held Russian citizenship.
“Taking these circumstances into account, on the basis of the Convention of the CIS member states on legal assistance and legal relations in civil, family and criminal matters of 7 October 2002, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Belarus transferred the further criminal prosecution of the person concerned, together with the case materials, to the competent authorities of the Russian Federation.
During the preliminary investigation, the man fully admitted his guilt in the offence attributed to him and repented”, the prosecutor’s office said.
As a result, the Safonovo District Court of Russia’s Smolensk Region found the man guilty of threatening violence against a representative of the authorities in connection with the performance of his official duties and sentenced him to a fine of 50,000 Russian roubles. He was also ordered to pay 100,000 Russian roubles in moral damages to the Belarusian security officer.