Man fined for calling police officers 'smurfs' in Facebook post

An Austrian man faces a £140 (€160) fine for describing police officers as "smurfs" in a warning about speed checks posted on Facebook.

The Austria Press Agency reported on Tuesday that authorities in Tyrol province imposed the fine on the man, whose name wasn't released, for violating "public decency" by "defaming two police officers."

The man's post in a Facebook group alerted others to "two smurfs standing with lasers" on a local highway on February 11.

A police officer who read the post filed a complaint.

According to the local Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper, the man then wrote another Facebook post when he came across the same police officers later that day.

He warned his friends that they were outside a local petrol station and told people to “smile at the cameras.”

Police said the man’s posts were an example of "repeated defamation of two police officers" and said that the post could influence the behaviour of others who read it.

They issued the man with a fine of £70 (€80) per Facebook post causing him to accrue a total penalty of £140 (€160).

The newspaper reported that the man maintains the term "smurfs" was meant as a harmless joke rather than an insult, and plans to defend himself at regional police headquarters.

"I will soon go to the police headquarters in Innsbruck and talk. Maybe something can be done,” he said.

Additional reporting by the Press Association