Russian Blogger Jailed

(Rostov-on-Don, Russia)

A court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has sentenced a local journalist to 18 months in jail for insulting a local judge in his blog.

Sergei Reznik was found guilty on November 26 of "publicly insulting" the chairwoman of the Rostov Oblast Arbitration Court on his LiveJournal blog. The court also found Reznik guilty of paying a 2,000-ruble ($45) bribe to a mechanic to clear his car in a technical inspection.

Furthermore, the court declared Reznik's claims that he received threatening phone calls a false complaint, and agreed with prosecutors that he had arranged the calls himself.

Reznik initially filed two police complaints of receiving threats of physical violence over the phone. But the local branch of the Investigative Committee instead began proceedings against him, accusing him of "wishing to draw public and media attention to his personality" and "seeking to raise his professional rating."

Heh.