A Moscow regional court on Friday sentenced an activist to six years in prison for criticizing Russia’s attacks on Ukraine on social media, an NGO and relatives told AFP.
Musician and environmental activist Alexander Bakhtin, 51, was arrested in March 2023 and charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military, a charge often used to silence critics of the conflict .
“Alexander…
A Moscow regional court on Friday sentenced an activist to six years in prison for criticizing Russia’s attacks on Ukraine on social media, an NGO and relatives told AFP.
Musician and environmental activist Alexander Bakhtin, 51, was arrested in March 2023 and charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military, a charge often used to silence critics of the conflict .
“Alexander was sentenced to six years in exile,” Bakhtin’s friend Andrei Shchetinin, who attended the hearing, told AFP.
You’ll also need to undergo regular psychiatric assessments, he added.
Human rights organization OVD-Info confirmed the verdict.
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The accusation is based on three social media posts between March and April 2022 in which he blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the conflict.
Setchinin said Bakhtin cursed the judge loudly after reading the verdict to him.
The defendant’s mother, Lyudmila Bajtina, 79, was called as a witness in the prosecution against her son.
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At an earlier hearing attended by AFP reporters, the woman told the court she signed the testimony without reading it and did not know she could refuse to testify.
According to her, the activist suffered from bronchitis and heart disease.
Some 20,000 people have been detained in Russia over protests against the conflict in Ukraine, according to OVD-Info.
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