CNN
—
A Russian court has sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to six years in prison for posting a telegram that the court said had spread “false information.”
Ponomarenko was detained last April and charged with publishing “false information” on his Telegram channel about a Russian airstrike on a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, which killed hundreds, a charge Russian authorities denied. There is
A court in the city of Barnaul in western Siberia, Russia, has sentenced Ponomarenko to “six years’ imprisonment in a correctional colony of the general regime,” the court’s media outlet said in a statement by TASS.
The press service of the Leninsky District Court in Barnaul added that Ponomarenko “does not have the right for five years to engage in activities related to the administration of public channels of electronic and information and telecommunication networks, including websites, the Internet.” .
In early February, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told Russian authorities to “immediately release journalist Maria Ponomarenko and columnist Iskander Yasaveev” and “prosecute journalists for reporting and commenting on the war in Ukraine.” stop doing it.”
Ponomarenko’s employer, RusNews, said on Telegram that the journalist’s months in pretrial detention led to her psychological deterioration, which led to her attempted suicide in September. She Ponomarenko is the mother of her two children.
“At least 19 journalists were incarcerated in Russia when the CPJ conducted its latest prison census on December 1, 2022. The CPJ emailed the Justice Department for comment on both cases. but received no response,” the CPJ statement added.
