A Russian court docket has convicted 4 journalists of extremism for working for an anti-corruption group based by the late opposition chief Alexei Navalny and sentenced them to 5 and a half years in jail every.
Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin and Artyom Kriger had been discovered responsible of involvement with a bunch that had been labeled as extremist. All 4 had maintained their innocence, arguing they had been being prosecuted for doing their jobs as journalists.
The closed-door trial was a part of a crackdown on dissent that has reached an unprecedented scale since Moscow despatched troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
The authorities have focused opposition figures, unbiased journalists, rights activists and bizarre Russians essential of the Kremlin with prosecution, jailing tons of and prompting 1000’s to flee the nation.
Favorskaya and Kriger labored with Sota Imaginative and prescient, an unbiased Russian information outlet that covers protests and political trials. Gabov is a contract producer who has labored for a number of organisations, together with Reuters. Karelin, a contract video journalist, has executed work for western media shops together with the Related Press.
The 4 journalists had been accused of working with Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, which was designated as extremist and outlawed in 2021 in a transfer broadly seen as politically motivated.
Navalny was Vladimir Putin’s fiercest and most distinguished foe and relentlessly campaigned towards official corruption in Russia. Navalny died in February 2024 in an Arctic penal colony whereas serving a 19-year sentence for a number of expenses, together with working an extremist group, which he had rejected as politically pushed.
Favorskaya mentioned at an earlier court docket look open to the general public that she was being prosecuted for a narrative she wrote on abuse Navalny confronted behind bars. Talking to reporters from the defendants’ cage earlier than the decision, she additionally mentioned she was punished for serving to to organise Navalny’s funeral.
Gabov, in a closing assertion ready for court docket that was printed by the unbiased Novaya Gazeta newspaper, mentioned the accusations towards him had been groundless and the prosecution didn’t show them.
“I perceive completely nicely … what sort of nation I stay in. All through historical past, Russia has by no means been completely different, there may be nothing new within the present scenario,” Gabov mentioned within the assertion. “Unbiased journalism is equated to extremism.”
Supporters who gathered within the court docket constructing chanted and applauded because the 4 journalists had been led out of the courtroom after the decision.
The journalists’ attorneys mentioned they might attraction towards the decision, which Kriger’s lawyer, Yelena Sheremetyeva, described as unlawful and unfair.
“The career of a journalist in itself will not be extremism,” mentioned Irina Biryukova. “And based mostly on the case supplies which might be accessible, I’ll say that in our opinion, there isn’t a proof that they dedicated any crimes, and even minor offences.”
She mentioned the 4 had been “holding up” and had been “comfortable that so many individuals got here”.
The Russian human rights group Memorial designated all 4 as political prisoners, amongst greater than 900 others held within the nation.
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