“Mr. Nevzorov is sentenced to an eight-year prison term to be served in a penal colony,” said Judge Evgenia Nikolaeva of the Basmanny Court in Moscow. poco_bw/stock.adobe.com
A journalist and former Russian MP, Alexander Nevzorov, was sentenced on Tuesday January 31 in absentia to eight years in prison for allegedly broadcasting “fake newson the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine. From the first weeks of its assault on Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022, Russia implemented heavy penalties to suppress any criticism of its offensive and the army.
“Mr Nevzorov is sentenced to an eight-year prison term to be served in a penal colony“, declared the judge Evguénia Nikolaeva of the court Basmanny of Moscow according to the Russian agencies. The prosecution had requested nine years in prison, while his lawyer had requested the acquittal of his client, who went into exile abroad and runs a YouTube channel with nearly two million subscribers.
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Bombing of a maternity ward
At the end of March 2022, the Investigative Committee, in charge of the main cases in Russia, announced the opening of an investigation against Alexander Nevzorov, 64, accusing him of having “knowingly published false information on a deliberate bombardment of a maternity hospital in Mariupol (south-eastern Ukraine, editor’s note) by the Russian army“. Russia consistently denies any bombings of civilian sites in Ukraine, blaming them on Ukraine.
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It was then the first case of this kind opened in Russia against a journalist after the adoption in early March 2022 of a law providing for up to 15 years in prison for any information on the Russian army deemed untrue by the Kremlin. .
Growing repression
The verdict comes amid a growing crackdown on media and journalists amid Russia’s nearly year-long military offensive in Ukraine.
Opponent Ilia Iachine has since been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for denouncing “the killing of civiliansin the Ukrainian town of Boutcha, near kyiv, where the Russian army is accused of abuses that Moscow denies.
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