Stand-up comedian Steniuk jokes about ‘killing Muslims’: Ombudsman appeals to police
25 September 2024 23:37
Stand-up Anton Steniuk, who is a resident of the Ukrainian stand-up project “Underground Stand-up”, made an open attack against people on religious grounds in his speech. This was reported by the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
“Do not try to convince me that I allegedly did not catch the meaning of this “joke”, which, in fact, is not there. However, there is an open attack against people on religious grounds…” Chubarov said.
Chubarov published a video fragment from the recording of Steniuk’s solo concert “Sensual”, which took place in March this year.
According to the video published by Chubarov, Steniuk called the Russian-Ukrainian war “nonsense” because he “does not know how it happened that some Orthodox Christians kill other Orthodox Christians when there are so many Muslims in the world”.
“This war is just nonsense. I don’t know how it happened that some Orthodox Christians kill other Orthodox Christians when there are so many Muslims in the world. I am not saying that Muslims should be killed, I am an adequate person, I understand that this is not the time. But even more so, the Jews are already doing it,” Steniuk said in his speech
However, the original video on the Underground Stand-up YouTube channel does not contain this joke. The timecode shows a different joke. However, it seems that the fragment was cut out.
In a comment under this post, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that he had asked the National Police to check this fact.
Lubinets also asked to open criminal proceedings under Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for inciting religious hatred and enmity, insulting the feelings of citizens in connection with their religious beliefs.
