Moreover, the court ordered him to work or register with the Employment Service throughout the entire period of the sentence suspension and prohibited the use of psychoactive substances. E. Kulišius will be required to participate in a behavioral correction program for nine months.
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The court partially granted the victim’s claim for non-material damage compensation – awarding 1,000 euros out of the requested 10,000 euros.
E. Kulišius has been administratively punished for various offenses, does not pay imposed fines, and is unemployed. He had previously been convicted for causing physical pain or minor health impairment and for destruction or damage to property. Last year, he was sentenced for inciting violence against a group of people based on age and for systematic human terrorization. At that time, he was given an eight-month prison sentence. In May of this year, E. Kulišius was conditionally released from prison.
Previously, he was tried for inciting violence against children; this time – for inciting violence against disabled people.
“During a live broadcast on the social network ‘TikTok,’ he deliberately publicly mocked, humiliated, incited hatred, and encouraged discrimination against a group of people or an individual belonging to it due to disability, as well as humiliated and mocked the disabled victim E. V.,” the verdict states.
E. V., who became disabled due to an accident, was raising money for his treatment on the social network, which greatly displeased E. Kulišius. In the mentioned broadcast and several videos, he insulted disabled people and E. V. with various words, threatened violence, and urged viewers to join in the violence.
The verdict quotes E. Kulišius’s online threats accompanied by swear words. He called the victim “stinking bastard,” “stinking rooster,” “scoundrel,” “vagabond,” “degenerate,” “piece of invalid.” He promised to throw him from the fifth floor, break his home windows, and “kick him hard.”
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According to witnesses, E. Kulišius threatened to stab the victim with a knife, throw him out of the wheelchair, and kick him. One of the witnesses said she believed E. Kulišius began to dislike E. V. because after E. V. appeared on the TikTok platform, many people started following him, and everyone joined his live broadcasts instead of E. Kulišius’s.
“I will destroy all the freaks one by one…,” threatened E. Kulišius.
“All those, kindness campaigns, (…) we will destroy, all invalids, bastards (…), all trash, no kindness campaigns (…) will be,” the accused said during the broadcasts.
“I promise, guys, we will mess him up (…). We will teach him a lesson (…) properly, so he won’t fly around,” Voveriukas addressed his viewers.
In court, E. Kulišius admitted his guilt. He said that he “got an adrenaline rush.”
“I wanted to act tough,” the accused said in court.
E. Kulišius defended himself by saying he thought E. V. was a scammer because E. V. was raising money for treatment on the social network.
The case includes an expert opinion stating that the ideas expressed in six videos made during live broadcasts by the TikTok user known as Voveriukas should be understood as a very negative opinion about disabled people, their humiliation, mockery, and spreading hatred against them.
