Russian court jails Dmitry Ivanov activist opposing Ukraine war for 8.5 years
A Russian opposition activist who used social media to condemn the way Moscow is waging its war in Ukraine received an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence on Tuesday after a Moscow court found him guilty of spreading false information about the army. Dmitry Ivanov, who ran a protest channel on the Telegram social network for students of Moscow State University, denied any wrongdoing. Ivanov told the court he stood by his original statements which he said were factually accurate. The verdict, published by his lawyer Maria Eismont on Facebook, said Ivanov would serve out his sentence in a penal colony and that he had also been banned for four years from being an administrator for Internet or social media sites. Shortly after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine just over a year ago, Russia introduced sweeping wartime censorship laws which have since been used to silence dissenting voices across society. "Discrediting" the army can currently be punished by up to five years in prison, while spreading deliberately false information about it can attract a 15-year jail sentence. Ivanov, who was detained in June last year, was accused of writing or reposting on Telegram a series of claims about the Russian army's behaviour in Ukraine, including allegations of war crimes. Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" designed to protect its own national security, denies that its forces have committed war crimes. Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Moscow of waging an unprovoked war of aggression to grab territory in Ukraine.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 11:49 am