The journalist is accused of not registering as a ‘international agent’ and for spreading ‘false data’ concerning the Russian military.
A Russian courtroom has sentenced Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the United States-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), to 6 and a half years in jail for spreading false details about the Russian military.
Natalya Loseva, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court docket of Tatarstan, informed reporters within the southern metropolis of Kazan on Monday that Kurmasheva was sentenced on Friday after two days of courtroom proceedings.
The sentencing was on the identical day {that a} courtroom in Yekaterinburg sentenced one other US citizen, Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, to 16 years in jail for espionage after a three-day trial behind closed doorways.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus referred to as Kurmasheva’s trial and conviction “a mockery of justice”, including that “the one simply end result is for Alsu to be instantly launched from jail by her Russian captors”.
“It’s past time for this American citizen, our expensive colleague, to be reunited along with her loving household,” Capus stated in an announcement.
Kurmasheva, 47, relies in Prague and has been held since October 18 when she was arrested whereas visiting household in her native Russian area of Tatarstan. She had first been detained briefly earlier final yr whereas attempting to depart Russia, and her passports have been confiscated.
A courtroom initially discovered her responsible of failing to declare that she had a US passport, obligatory beneath Russian legislation, and fined her. Every week later, she was charged with failing to register as a “international agent”, to which she pleaded not responsible.
Her husband, Pavel Butorin, who additionally works for RFE/RL, wrote on X: “My daughters and I do know Alsu has achieved nothing incorrect. And the world is aware of it too. We want her residence.”
Butorin has stated her arrest was associated to a guide she had edited titled Saying No to Battle: 40 Tales of Russians Who Oppose the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
Gershkovich and Kurmasheva are amongst not less than a half-dozen People convicted and jailed in Russia throughout the largest breakdown of relations between Moscow and the West for the reason that Chilly Battle.
RFE/RL, which has broadcast information about Jap Europe and the previous Soviet Union for the reason that Chilly Battle, is funded by the US Congress.
Russia has designated it as a “international agent” and an “undesirable” organisation, classifications that carry damaging Chilly Battle overtones and successfully ban it inside Russia.
Russia has handed strict navy censorship legal guidelines that outlaw criticism of its navy offensive on Ukraine, launched in February 2022. It has escalated a decade-long crackdown on unbiased journalists and civil society throughout the offensive.
A whole bunch have been prosecuted for spreading “false data” – which the Kremlin defines as something not permitted by the federal government – or “discrediting” the armed forces.