MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT TO PAY 2 THOUSAND EUROS FOR VIOLATING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION - ECHR

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) obliges Moldova to pay damages to Moldovan citizen Anatol Matasaru for violating his freedom of expression. Matasaru is known for his defiant protest actions against corruption in republic's law enforcement agencies.

According to the human right organization "Lawyers for Human Rights", the ECHR said that the court has gone beyond the necessary restriction of freedom of expression, when in 2015 sentenced Matasaru for 2 years suspended.

The reason for such a tough punishment was his protest in front of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) on January 18, 2013. Back then, Matasaru installed at the entrance in the building a 2-meter sculpture of a phallus with a photo of a politician on it, as well as a kind of installation in the form of female genital organs with photos of well-known prosecutors on it.

National courts declared the protest as obscene, as well as pointed that the placing of photos of politicians and officials on such objects goes beyond criticism. The courts said that fines for numerous previous such actions had no proper effect on the activist, thus a tougher punishment should be applied against him.

The ECHR maintained that the establishing of the violation is in its essence already a compensation of moral damage, thus it obliged the Government to pay to Matasaru just 2 thousand euros to cover costs and other expenditures.