Maria Ponomarenko, a Russian journalist, was sentenced to six years in prison for publishing on social media about a deadly attack by Russian airplanes on a Ukrainian theater.
The court in Barnaul, Siberia, found her guilty of distributing “false news” in accordance with regulations intended to stifle opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
In addition, she was prohibited from working as a journalist for five years.
In March of last year, hundreds of bystanders perished when the Mariupol theater was bombed.
Ponomarenko was arrested in April of last year, weeks after the bombing, for claiming that Russian airplanes carried out the attack despite denials from the Russian defense ministry.
She is among the growing number of Russian dissidents imprisoned for criticizing the Ukraine war.
When the theater was struck by Russian fighter jets, over 1,200 civilians were seeking refuge inside.
According to an inquiry by the Associated Press, the number of fatalities was closer to 600 than to 300, as reported by Ukrainian officials. Numerous remains were discovered in the basement.
Amnesty International stated that it was a war crime committed by Russian forces, while the OSCE stated that it had not received any evidence to support Russian claims that a Ukrainian unit blew up the theater.
Within days of the invasion, prosecutors charged Maria Ponomarenko with the crime of providing “knowingly false information” about the Russian military troops.
In her address to the court prior to her sentencing, she emphasized that, according to Russia’s constitution, she had committed no wrongdoing:
“Had I committed a real crime, I could have asked for leniency, but due to my moral and ethical traits, I would not do so.”
She concluded her speech by declaring herself a patriotic opposition pacifist and stating,
“No totalitarian dictatorship has ever been as strong before its collapse.”
The journalist and activist, who has two small children, have endured mental health issues in jail, according to her attorney, and compared her pre-trial detention conditions to torture last year.
Alexei Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison last summer for speaking out against Russia’s conflict in Ukraine during a city council meeting.
A UN working panel demanded his release earlier this week, ruling that his arrest was arbitrary and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ilya Yashin, one of Russia’s most renowned opposition figures, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in December for spreading “false news” about the military after condemning the slaughter of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians by Russian occupying forces in Bucha, near Kyiv, on YouTube.
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