A 42-year-old TikToker was sentenced to nine months in prison by a Munich court for disturbing the peace at a grave. Ivan T., a native Ukrainian, had filmed himself urinating on the grave of Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator and later uploaded the video to a Chinese video platform.
During the trial, Ivan T. took the verdict calmly, saying, “There are crimes for which I will proudly accept a sentence.”
The court found that the videos had caused unrest and outrage in the Ukrainian community and the judge pointed out that Bandera had committed heinous crimes, including the murder of innocent people in white Russian villages in 1939.
Ivan T. responded, “Maybe they don’t know the story.”
The court sentenced Ivan T. to nine months in prison, which is a relatively harsh punishment, as the maximum sentence for the crime is three years in prison. The judge did not suspend the sentence, citing a lack of a positive criminal prognosis for the defendant, who is homeless.
Ivan T. has a prior criminal record, having been previously convicted of flying a drone with a Russian flag over the German Bundestag in 2023, for which he was sentenced to a one-year probation period.
The court’s decision has sparked controversy, with some criticizing the harsh punishment and others calling for a stronger stance against hate speech and nationalism.