Three young graffiti artists have been brought to criminal responsibility for their artwork

July 19, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Three young graffiti artists in Vitebsk have been brought to criminal responsibility for their "art". This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by Larisa Mishanskaya, senior assistant prosecutor of the Oktyabrsky district of Vitebsk.

 On one of the March days, three underage friends decided to take a late-night walk around their hometown. The comrades had no specific goal, so to diversify their boring walk a little, they decided to decorate various objects along Moskovsky Prospekt and Lenin Street they encountered with their creativity. Residential buildings, public transport stops, billboards, various institutions, their native school, and even the district police department building fell into the young people's field of vision. The guys couldn't show much imagination, leaving primitive "cave" drawings (crosses, stars, etc.), phrases from favorite songs, and obscene language on the walls. The "artists" spent the last drops of paint on a car, which, in their opinion, was parked incorrectly. And to discourage the owner from parking his car like that in the future, the guys also jumped on it. Although the graffiti artists' route lay further, it was at that moment that law enforcement officers, called by citizens, interrupted their "creative" voyage.

For desecration of structures and property damage (Art. 341 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus) and hooliganism committed by a group of persons (Art. 339, Part 2), two teenagers aged 15 and 16 were sentenced to one year of imprisonment, suspended, and their 18-year-old friend at the time of sentencing (as a citizen of Russia) was punished with a fine of 20 basic units (currently, one basic unit is equal to Br35 thousand). In addition, the parents of the young offenders compensated about Br800 thousand for the damage caused. It is noteworthy that the guys are well-regarded at their educational institution and had no prior problems with the law.

As Larisa Mishanskaya emphasized, this is the first case of bringing graffiti artists to criminal responsibility in Vitebsk. Previously, all the punishment for the guys was limited to administrative protocols and preventive conversations.

The regional center has about 40 young graffiti artists who have come to the attention of the police for creating art in unauthorized locations. Currently, the city authorities are considering allocating suitable objects for the teenagers to paint on.-0
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