A Russian court has sentenced Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six and a half years in prison for spreading “false information” about the Russian army’s actions in Ukraine.
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The verdict was announced on Monday by Natalya Loseva, spokeswoman for the Supreme Court of Tatarstan, without prior announcement of the date of the hearing, according to AFP.
The sentence has been harshly criticized by Stephen Capuspresident of ‘Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’, the American media outlet for which Kurmasheva works.
“This secret trial and sentencing are a travesty of justice. The only fair outcome would be the immediate release of Alsu.“, Capus said.
Kurmasheva, 47, was arrested in October 2023 for failing to register as a “foreign agent,” a designation that imposes severe administrative limitations.
A Russian court has sentenced Alsou Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who works for US-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, to six-and-a-half years in prison for “spreading fake news” about the Russian military. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/uW6746K4JY
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) July 22, 2024
The journalist, who lives in Prague with her husband and two teenage daughters, had traveled to Russia to visit her sick grandmother. However, He was unable to return because the authorities confiscated his passports. Russian and American.
The verdict comes just days after another Russian court sentenced American journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in prison for espionage, a charge that the reporter, his newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, and the White House categorically deny.
Gershkovich, 32, will have to serve his sentence in a “strict regime” penal colonyaccording to the verdict handed down by Judge Andrei Mineyev of the Yekaterinburg court.
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*This content was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence using information from AFP and was reviewed by a journalist and an editor.
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