Riga court hands three-year prison term for glorifying Russian war crimes on TikTok

The Riga City Court on Tuesday, 10 November, sentenced Tatjana Masenko to three years in prison for glorifying war crimes committed by Russian armed forces in Ukraine. The case concerned videos posted on the social network TikTok in 2024. In addition to the prison term, the defendant was given two years of probation supervision.

The sentence

Prosecutor Roberts Urdziņš had asked for the same punishment during the court debates. The law provides for up to six years in prison and up to three years of probation supervision for this offence. Participants in the proceedings can request the full judgment within ten days of its announcement, and it can be appealed within ten working days.

The charge

According to the prosecutor's office, between April and July 2024 the defendant posted several TikTok videos with comments in Russian. They were available to an unlimited number of people and knowingly, publicly glorified and justified war crimes committed by Russian armed forces against Ukraine.

Arguments of the prosecutor and the defence

The prosecutor said the defendant did not deny publishing the videos and acknowledged they were posted from her profile. More than 20 publications were identified in the case, and he said there had been even more similar posts than those listed in the charge. Urdziņš acknowledged that Masenko has no previous convictions and that her character has no negative traits, but said that, given the content of the videos, a custodial sentence was warranted.

Defence lawyer Oskars Ondrups argued in the debates that the defendant used TikTok thoughtlessly and frivolously, wanting to stand out rather than support Russian aggression or influence others. He asked for her acquittal and, after the verdict, told journalists he would appeal because the punishment seemed disproportionate to him.

In her final statement, Masenko expressed regret and said she had not published the videos to glorify war crimes. She stressed that she is a Latvian citizen and does not travel to Russia or Belarus. She also said she has already spent four months in pre-trial detention, into which she was taken right after questioning by the State Security Service.