Police in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg have detained an artist who supposedly made a poster depicting Jesus Christ giving the middle finger and displayed it near a church.
The insulting poster was hung near Yekaterinburg’s Church on the Blood, the city’s largest and most beautiful church, shortly after Easter. An unknown art group, which calls itself “Zlye” (Evil), claimed responsibility.
“[The author] was detained on Wednesday and taken to the city police station where he confessed,” police spokesman Valery Gorelykh said.
The young man, identified only as Stanislav, 24, studies art at a local college. He said the motive behind his move was to protest against priests who take money for baptizing people.
Police have kept the man’s identity secret after receiving threats of tracking down and lynching those guilty of blasphemy.
“We’ll find [those guilty] and burn them,” the spokesman quoted from a letter sent by an unnamed individual as saying.
YEKATERINBURG, May 5 (RIA Novosti)