Russia on Tuesday sentenced 4 journalists it stated have been related to late opposition chief Alexei Navalny to 5 and a half years in a penal colony, intensifying a crackdown on press freedom and Kremlin critics.
Navalny — Putin’s primary opponent — was declared an “extremist” by Russian authorities, a ruling that continues to be in pressure regardless of his dying in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024.
Moscow additionally banned Navalny’s organisations as “extremist” shortly earlier than launching its 2022 Ukraine offensive and has ruthlessly focused these it deems to have hyperlinks to him.
A choose sentenced the reporters — Antonina Kravtsova, Konstantin Gabov, Sergei Karelin, and Artem Kriger — who all coated Navalny to “5 years and 6 months in a general-regime penal colony”, an AFP journalist heard.
They have been discovered responsible of “taking part in an extremist group” after being arrested final 12 months.
The trial proceeded behind closed doorways at Moscow’s Nagatinsky district courtroom with solely the sentencing open to the media, as has grow to be typical for political circumstances in Russia amid its Ukraine offensive.
Round 100 supporters, journalists and Western diplomats got here to the courtroom for the verdicts. Supporters cheered and clapped because the defendants have been led in.
Since Navalny’s nonetheless unexplained dying in an Arctic jail final 12 months, Russian authorities have closely focused his household and associates.
In January, three attorneys who had defended him in courtroom have been sentenced to a number of years in jail.
Moscow has additionally escalated its decade-long crackdown on impartial media amid its navy offensive on Ukraine.
Shortly after ordering troops into Ukraine in 2022, Moscow handed sweeping navy censorship legal guidelines that ban criticism of its military, forcing many of the nation’s impartial media to depart the nation.
– ‘Pay with my freedom’ –
The journalists sentenced on Tuesday rejected the fees of being related to an extremist group.
Kravtsova, 34, is a photographer who labored for the impartial SOTAvision outlet and makes use of the pen identify Antonina Favorskaya.
She had coated Navalny’s trials for 2 years and filmed his final look by way of video-link in courtroom simply two days earlier than his dying.
Video correspondents Gabov and Karelin are accused of making ready pictures and video materials for Navalny’s social media channels.
Each had labored at instances with worldwide shops — Gabov with Reuters and Karelin with the Related Press and Deutsche Welle.
Kriger, 24, the youngest among the many accused, coated political trials and protests for SOTAvision.
After the decision, he stated in courtroom: “All the things will probably be tremendous, All the things will change. Those that sentenced me will probably be sitting right here as a substitute of me.”
As he spoke a supporter shouted: “You’re the pleasure of Russia!”.
Of their ultimate statements, revealed by impartial media shops, the journalists slammed the case in opposition to them and the state of press freedom in Russia.
“Partaking in impartial journalism is now equated with extremism,” Gabov stated in his final assertion to the courtroom, the Meduza website reported.
Kriger informed the courtroom: “I didn’t need to flee and be afraid, I needed to insist that it was doable and essential to do journalism in Russia,” in line with a transcript posted by SOTAVision.
“If I’ve to pay for that perception with my freedom or my life, I’m keen to do it,” he stated.
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