The journalist was sentenced in the southern Siberian city of Barnaul. (Representative)
Moscow:
A Russian court today sentenced a journalist to six years in prison for comments critical of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, officials said, as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent.
The ruling is the latest in a series of high-profile rulings under the new law, which critics say is designed to criminalize criticism of military intervention.
The Investigative Committee, which investigates major crimes, said Maria Ponomarenko, 44, was sentenced for spreading false information about Moscow’s military.
The journalist was sentenced in the southern Siberian city of Barnaul, where he worked for the Rusnews website.
He was prosecuted last March for a post on social media relating to an attack on a theater in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which came under Russian control after a long siege.
Kiev and its Western allies blame Moscow for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in the attack, which Russia denies.
Prosecutors had requested a nine-year prison sentence.
Ponomarenko was arrested last April in Russia’s second city, St. Petersburg, before being transferred to Barnaul.
The OVD-info law-enforcement monitoring group reported that its lawyer has expressed concern over Ponomarenko’s deteriorating mental health and requested that he seek treatment.
After the Kremlin ordered troops into Ukraine nearly a year ago, Russia introduced new legislation criminalizing officials spreading false or damaging information about the Russian military and the offensive.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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