2023-08-11 23:36:31
A Moscow region court on Friday sentenced a musician and environmental activist to six years in prison for posting three messages on social media denouncing the Russian attack in Ukraine.
Alexander Bakhtin, 51, a resident of Mytishchi, near Moscow, was arrested in March 2023 and charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian army, a charge regularly used to suppress voices critical of the conflict. “Alexander was sentenced to six years in camp and he is prohibited from administering Internet sites for three years,” said Andrei Shchetinin, one of his friends present at the hearing. The activist will also be obliged to consult a psychiatrist during his detention in a penal colony, according to the verdict, which was also confirmed by the specialized Russian NGO OVD-Info.
Eco-activist Alexander Bakhtin was asked for eight years in prison in the case of spreading “fake news” about the army based on political hostility.
The interests of the man are represented by a lawyer from OVD-Info Nikita Spivakhttps://t.co/UtQMBeZ3ux
— OVD-Info (@OvdInfo) August 11, 2023
In March and April 2022, Alexander Bakhtin published three messages on the Russian social network VKontakte in which he denounced the military campaign in Ukraine, evoking civilian victims and implicating Vladimir Putin.
Thousands of anonymous condemned
Friday, shortly before the statement of the verdict, the prosecution had claimed eight years in prison against the musician. His mother Lioudmila then began to cry and felt unwell in the courtroom, said his friend. The judge, Maria Loktionova, was forced to briefly interrupt the hearing. After the verdict was announced, Aleksandr Bakhtin shouted at the judge: “Damn you, Loktionova! “.
Beyond the high-profile cases of famous opponents of the Kremlin imprisoned since the start of the conflict in February 2022, thousands of anonymous people have been arrested and sentenced to fines and prison terms in Russia for having denounced the Russian military operation. Last week, an entrepreneur from the St. Petersburg region was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for messages of support for Ukraine.
According to the Russian NGO OVD-Info, more than 20,000 people have been arrested in Russia during protest actions against the conflict in Ukraine. Several hundred others have been targeted by serious legal proceedings.
#Russia #years #prison #messages #denouncing #invasion #Ukraine