An activist for the Parnas opposition party in Russia's republic of Chuvashia was sentenced to a 150,000 ruble ($2,270) fine for reposting a caricature of Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Twitter — only to be immediately amnestied, RBC news agency reported Thursday.
A district court in the city of Cheboksary, Chuvashia's administrative center, found Dmitry Semyonov guilty Thursday of inciting extremist activity by reposting a caricature of Medvedev, Semyonov's lawyer Yevgeny Gubin told RBC. Semyonov's fine was canceled out and his conviction expunged under the amnesty, he said.
The criminal case against Semyonov was launched after he retweeted a link to an interview with Matvei Gonopolsky, a prominent Moscow journalist. The caricature was attached to the link, Gubin said, and Semyonov shared it automatically without meaning to. Linguistic experts examined the caricature and concluded it was humiliating on national grounds.
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