Вильнюсский городской суд
18 ноября 2016 года
Facts
The defendant, sitting in his car with the window open, publicly mocked the victim as she passed by, using offensive and obscene language and swearing at her, saying: "How many more monkeys are you going to bring here, nigger, man is white, monkey, bitch, get out of Lithuania, go (obscene word)," thereby publicly mocking and humiliating her because of her race.
Court‘s ruling
The Criminal Code provides for criminal liability for public mockery, contempt, incitement to hatred or to discriminate against a group of people or a person belonging to that group on certain grounds. The value protected by these provisions of criminal law is the equality of persons. The prohibition is based on Article 25(4) of the Constitution, according to which freedom to express beliefs and disseminate information is incompatible with criminal acts – incitement to national, racial, religious or social hatred, violence and discrimination, defamation and disinformation. In specific cases, the honor, dignity, and health of a person belonging to a particular group of people may be an additional object.
The perpetrator actively mocks, disparages, incites hatred and discrimination, and incites those around them with their public statements, which contain specifically, biasedly and subjectively selected and presented information, opinions, facts, assessments, conclusions, etc., expressing the speaker's negative, contemptuous, and degrading attitude towards certain groups of people defined by law or individuals belonging to them.
After assessing the circumstances, the court ruled that the defendant had committed a crime but exempted him from liability because he had reconciled with the victim.