A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a journalist to six years in prison who criticized Russia’s offensive against Ukraine on Instagram.
Maria Ponomarenko, 44, has been found guilty of “spreading false information” about the military, Russian judicial authorities announced on Wednesday.
The legislation, which was passed following Russia’s new military campaign in Ukraine, has been used several times to sentence those who openly criticize the conflict to harsh prison terms. The journalist was sentenced by the court in Barnaoul, in the Siberian Altai region, where she worked for the news portal RusNews.
According to the non-governmental organization OVD-Info, The journalist was charged after he published a post on the social network Instagram in March last year denouncing the bombing of the theater hall in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol during the siege by Russian troops.
Kiev has accused Moscow of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the bombing of the building, but Russia denies the allegations.
Maria Ponomarenko was arrested in Saint Petersburg in April 2022 and later transferred to Barnaoul. The journalist’s lawyer said Ponomarenko’s psychological condition worsened during the months in prison, during which authorities refused her transfer to a psychiatric hospital.
According to OVD-Info, the journalist broke the window of the cell in which she was held last September because the glass was “so opaque” that it did not allow sunlight to pass through. As punishment, she was placed in a disciplinary cell for a week.
In November, she was allowed to remain under house arrest at her ex-husband’s home, but after an argument, the journalist was again transferred to a prison in Siberia in late January.
Source: DN
