A district court in Orenburg has sentenced the owner, manager and art director of a local bar to prison, finding them guilty of organizing LGBT events. According to Interfax, it is the first verdict of its kind in Russia.
The court found that the defendants were aware that the “international LGBT public movement” had been designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia, yet “under the guise of running a nightclub” held events centered on demonstrating belonging to people of non-traditional sexual orientation.
The defendants — two residents of Bashkiria and one from Orenburg — were charged with organizing and taking part in the activities of an extremist organization. None of them pleaded guilty.
The court imposed prison terms ranging from two years and three months to seven years in a general-regime penal colony, along with restrictions on freedom of between eight months and a year and a half. The bar’s organizers were barred from certain activities, and more than one million rubles in proceeds were recovered from the owner.