Moscow, Russia - Two Russian museum employees who were sued for arousing religious hatred have filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights, RIA Novosti reported Wednesday.
The organizers of the ’’Beware: Religion!’’ exhibition at the Sakharov Museum, director Yuri Samodurov and museum employee Lyudmila Vasilorvskaya, were found guilty in March of arousing religious hatred and fined 100,000 rubles each.
However, their defense team has sent an appeal to the Strasbourg Court, Vasilovskaya’s lawyer Anna Stavitskaya has said.
“We have filed an appeal at the European Court, objecting to violations of three European Convention of Human Rights statements — the right for a fair trial, legal punishment and freedom of expression,” she said.
The ’’Beware: Religion!’’ exhibition was opened on Jan. 14 of last year at the Sakharov Museum, and dealt with issues such as religious fundamentalism and church-state relations. The exhibition displayed icons with fretwork in the shape of a hammer and sickle and even Nazi symbols, as well as icons with holes instead of saints’ images. Over 40 artists from Russia, Cuba, the U.S., Japan, Georgia and Armenia had their work exhibited.
A group of Orthodox citizens burst into the museum and poured paint over several objects claiming the exhibition insulted their religious feelings. The Moscow court deemed criminal prosecution of the vandals was unlawful, ruling that there was no indication they had committed a crime. The ruling was hailed by the Russian Orthodox Church, and a criminal case against the museum was launched instead.
The prosecutors initially asked for three years in a prison colony for Samodurov, and two years for Vasilovskaya.