Vilnius man receives restriction order for anti-gay hate speech

A Vilnius court has ordered a 62-year-old man to serve eight months under restricted liberty for publicly inciting hatred against homosexual people because of their sexual orientation, LRT reported Monday.

The Vilnius City District Court issued the order on September 8 after reviewing a prosecutor’s application in written proceedings, court representative Giedrius Janonis told BNS.

The man, Regimantas Skacevičius, must remain at home from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the sentence, unless he is travelling to work or visiting a healthcare or treatment facility. He must also obtain permission from the supervising institution to leave the city where he lives.

Skacevičius has 14 days to request a court hearing. If he does not make such a request, the order will become effective and enforcement will begin. The court had not received such a request by Monday, Janonis said.

According to GayLine.lt, the case followed a hateful comment posted under a Facebook version of an article about a Constitutional Court ruling concerning unmarried families and same-sex partnerships. The comment insulted gay people and called for violence against them.

GayLine.lt editor Martynas Norbutas, who reported the comment to police, said disagreement with the issues discussed in an article did not justify insulting people because of their sexual orientation or inciting violence against them.

Because the article used a photograph from Norbutas’s wedding and quoted him, the news portal said the defendant also agreed to pay him 450 euros in non-pecuniary damages.