European court rejects Stalin grandson's complaint

MOSCOW (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a complaint by the grandson of Josef Stalin over a Russian newspaper article that called the Soviet dictator a "bloodthirsty cannibal."

The article appeared in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 2009. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili then filed a defamation suit against the newspaper in a Russian court, which ruled against him.

Dzhugashvili took the issue to the European court, claiming the Russian court's decision violated his right to respect for private and family life.

But a court statement on Thursday said there is distinction between private life and criticism of public figures and that Stalin "inevitably remain(s) open to public scrutiny and criticism."


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-16

Strange justice. I'm no fan of Stalin, who can justly be accused of mass murder and a host of other crimes, but no reliable historian has ever produced evidence that he was a cannibal, nor even suspected him of such a crime. Metaphorically, he could be called a cannibal, though, because he regularly did away with his own closest colleagues, his own political kind.

Obviously, the European Court has never had to deal with Thailand's defamation laws. Lucky those Europeans.