Sofia Burger
Sofia Burger, born 2001, Krasnodar Krai. Charges: Article 148 part 2, Russian Criminal Code (Public insult of the religious feelings in places of worship); “Sofia Burger's Case on Wounding Religious Feelings”. Sentence (March 4, 2024): 440 hours of compulsory labour. Status: at large.
In brief
Krasnodar Krai · Krasnodar
Sentence
440 hours of compulsory labour
No information about an appeal ruling.
Charges
- Article 148 part 2, Russian Criminal Code — Public insult of the religious feelings in places of worship
Full wording of the charges
According to the investigation, on 21 March 2023, she approached a grave located on the territory of the "Vsesvyatsky cemetery", disparaging the Orthodox faith, with the aim of offending religious feelings, performed a dance, holding a cigarette in her mouth and showing obscene gestures with both hands. In turn, the husband of the citizen made a video recording of her actions. In order to give publicity to her illegal actions, using a mobile phone, the girl overlaid a song on the video of her dance and demonstration of obscene gestures and posted the video on her personal page in one of the social networks, access to which is available to an unlimited number of people, thus publicly expressing clear disrespect for society and offending the religious feelings of believers.
Latest event
March 4, 2024 — first-instance verdict
The court delivered a guilty verdict.
Timeline
· First-instance verdict
guilty verdict
· Persecution begins
Sofia Burger's Case on Wounding Religious Feelings
Criminal case
Sofia Burger's Case on Wounding Religious Feelings
- Case number
- 1-122/2024 (1-802/2023;)
Details and sources
Full summary
According to the court's version, on 23 March 2023, Sofia Burger danced on a grave located in the Vsesvyatsky cemetery in Krasnodar, a southern city in Russia. She made obscene gestures and held a cigarette in her mouth. Her husband took a video of what was happening, and Burger posted the video on her social media page. During the hearing, she explained that in this way she wanted to demonstrate a negative attitude towards Nazism, and her dance and the music used in the video symbolised the necessity to bury this ideology.
At the end of April 2024, the Leninsky District Court found her guilty under the article on insulting the feelings of believers, committed in places intended for divine services, religious rites and ceremonies (part 2 of article 148 of the Criminal Code) and imposed 440 hours of compulsory labour.
Earlier, in June 2023, Burger was fined under the article on demonstration of prohibited symbols (part 1 of article 20.3 of the Administrative Offences Code). The reason was a publication in Instagram: a photo of a children's slide painted in blue-yellow colour, accompanied by a "Ukrainian military patriotic song" about a fighter of an organisation recognised as "extremist" in Russia. In the same month, Burger was ordered to pay 30,000 rubles (US$ 300) under the article on discrediting the Russian army (part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) because of a video "showing a man against the background of the Kremlin's Senate Palace spitting in the direction of the Kremlin at the moment of an explosion."
All fields of the record
- Citizenship
- Russia
Other people prosecuted under Article 148 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.