Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 9 years in jail. (File)
Moscow:
A Russian court docket on Wednesday sentenced in absentia veteran journalist Alexander Nevzorov to eight years in jail for spreading “false data” about Moscow’s army offensive in Ukraine.
The decision is the most recent in a sequence of high-profile rulings beneath new laws that opponents of the Kremlin say was designed to criminalise critism of the battle.
Nevzorov, 64, got here beneath stress from authorities for alleging that Russian forces intentionally shelled a maternity hospital in Mariupol, a port metropolis in southern Ukraine that was captured by Moscow after an extended siege.
“Journalist Alexander Glebovich Nevzorov was discovered responsible … and sentenced to imprisonment for a interval of eight years,” the press service for Moscow courts stated in an announcement on Telegram.
Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 9 years in jail.
Nevzorov has left Russia and didn’t participate within the hearings.
Investigators launched the probe in March final yr, saying Nevzorov had deliberately printed “deceptive data” with “inaccurate images of civilians affected by the shelling”.
He was designated a “international agent” one month later, a branding that carries Soviet-era connotations and piles bureaucratic stress on folks hit with the label.
Nevzorov is a former member of parliament and his well-liked YouTube channel boasts practically two million subscribers.
After the Kremlin ordered troops into Ukraine final February, Russia launched new laws criminalising what authorities take into account to be false or damaging details about the Russian military and the offensive.
A number of politicians and public figures have confronted jail phrases beneath the brand new legislation, together with opposition councillor Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to eight and a half yr behind bars.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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